It’s a hot summer day, and the world’s a hot mess.
How about a nice cool glass of some heartening news?
On Friday, a third-story apartment caught fire.
Amid the overwhelming blaze, a distraught mother tossed her young child from the balcony.
A 25-foot fall could kill, but a concerned citizen was there for a miraculous feat.
As reported by ABC’s World News Tonight, former college football wide receiver Phillip Blanks had rushed to the scene.
The Marines veteran ran toward the window just as the 3-year-old fell.
The video is absolutely amazing.
LIFESAVING CATCH: Eyewitness video shows Phillip Blanks – a former college wide receiver – sprint to the scene of a third-floor apartment fire in Phoenix before catching a small child thrown from a balcony; the mother of the child did not survive. https://t.co/CyIuiva87p pic.twitter.com/egzOxE5bFr
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) July 7, 2020
There he is: a caring stranger, motivated by good. Not a mob. Not a destructive force. Not someone interested in a world separated by color of skin. But someone wanting to see people kept from harm.
Phillip gets there just in time. A moment later would’ve meant tragedy.
According CBS News, he’d gone to the complex to meet up with a friend for a morning workout. He heard the screams for help and responded to the call.
Despite all the horrors playing out on your television, the world is full of the wonderful, as well.
Phillip Banks reminded us of that. And although the child’s mother didn’t survive the blaze, her hope for humanity will live on because of the heart and strength of an outsider.
A real hero.
The kind they make statues to honor. Not the kind that steals, kills, destroys.
He recalled, “People were screaming, ‘There are kids up there’ and to throw the kids down. I saw another guy was standing there ready to catch the boy, but he didn’t look like he was going to do it, so I stepped in front of him. The way I caught him, I fell on my side, and of course damaged his foot, but the most important thing is that his head was safe. … For about a minute, I was just holding him as he was screaming, and I was telling him that it was going to be okay, everything’s going to be okay.”
“I’ve always had a Protector mindset growing up, he said. “It just enhanced when I went into the military.”
Thank you, Phillip. You did the good that we all need. That a little boy named Jameson needed.
But he wasn’t the only one that day. Mother Rachel Long, though she was on fire, went back into the apartment to save her 8-year-old daughter. Another good samaritan helped the young girl to safety.
Phillip told CBS Rachel was a “warrior”:
“She had the strength and the courage to get them outside — that’s powerful. To be in that type of situation and still care about life, not yours, that’s very strong of her. She’s a warrior.”
Yes, she was. So was a former Marine.
We’re beset by images selling us a world without heart. But it’s there, across America. And here in this great nation — and all over — there are heroes among us.
-ALEX
See 3 more pieces from me:
Christmas Miracle: Dad Murders Baby, But There was ‘Someone Watching Over’ Her
Find all my RedState work here.
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