A Friend Is Down

Updated: Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, 8:37 am -- News coverage says Mo "hesitated" and that is why he was shot. No, I doubt very seriously that he hesitated. I know the man all too well. He was not about to give this pathetic excuse for a human being his livelihood. This morning he is holding his own. Still in rough condition. But stabilizing.

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A man I have come to know quite well, an immigrant to this nation many years ago and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, was shot in his neighborhood market tonight. He is in critical condition in a nearby hospital. The police have not yet caught the scumbag who robbed him.


He always has believed in self defense, has kept a gun for protection in his home, and perhaps in his market. One of the things he always asked me . . . something that he could never understand . . . was why so many Americans will not rush to the aid of another. "Why do people here not stop a thief if I am yelling 'stop that thief?' " In the country he left, he has said, people think nothing of stopping a thief. For a thief affects everyone in the community.


Simply saying that so many people here are afraid to help another human being always has bothered me. Is it fear of "getting involved?" I don't know. This man would walk to mile to help another less fortunate person. A merchant with a heart.


His family waits and watches tonight. As do I. Please send good thoughts to this man tonight. I have come to know him as a friend. For he is good people.