On May 1, 1969, a soft-spoken children’s television host named Fred Rogers sat before a Senate subcommittee. Funding for public television was on the line, and the chairman, Senator John Pastore, called himself a pretty tough guy. Rogers didn’t read his prepared statement. He just talked about children. He explained that his show dealt with things like getting a haircut and the anger kids feel in families, and how he ended each program telling every child, “There’s no person in the whole world like you, and I like you, just the way you are.” Then he recited the words of a song about what to do with the mad that you feel. Pastore said he had goose bumps and told him, “Looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars.”
In a women’s 5,000 meter heat at the 2016 Rio Olympics, New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin tripped and fell, accidentally taking American Abbey D’Agostino down with her. D’Agostino jumped right back up, but instead of chasing the pack she stopped to help Hamblin to her feet and urged her to finish the race. D’Agostino had hurt her ankle in the fall, so Hamblin hung back to encourage her in return until D’Agostino urged her to go on without her. A few days later both women received Fair Play awards, and Hamblin said simply, “I am so grateful to Abbey for picking me up.”
In April 2008, Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky hit the first home run of her life, but she missed first base, turned back, and tore up her knee. She could barely crawl back to the bag, and the rules said her own teammates couldn’t help her. That’s when Mallory Holtman, a first baseman on the other team, Central Washington, asked the umpire if they could carry her. Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace picked Sara up and carried her around the bases, gently letting her touch each one with her good leg. That home run knocked their own team out of the playoffs, but Holtman said it was simply the right thing to do.
On January 2, 2007, construction worker Wesley Autrey was standing on a Manhattan subway platform with his two little girls. A young film student named Cameron Hollopeter had a seizure and fell onto the tracks just as a train’s headlights appeared. Autrey jumped down, realized there wasn’t time to lift him out, and instead pressed the young man down into the shallow trough between the rails and lay on top of him. The train rolled right over them with only inches to spare, and both men lived. His girls up on the platform thought they had lost their daddy, until they heard him call out from under the train that both of them were okay.
