It's Easy to Call Someone a Coward at a Safe Distance
By Aaron Goldstein (08/08/08)
Like you, I was horrified by the tragedy that took place on the Greyhound Bus bound from Edmonton to Winnipeg on July 30th. Tim McLean, all of 22 years old, was repeatedly stabbed and beheaded while the bus was traveling west of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. Vince Weiguang Li has been charged with second degree murder and could face the rest of his life in prison if convicted (Canada has no death penalty.)
Tim McLean’s murder hit me hard for several reasons. Aside from the sheer brutality of this crime there is the fact that it took place in my home and native land. When I lived in Canada, I did most of my travel by bus. On dozens of occasions, I took the bus from Ottawa to Toronto and back. Today, I still travel by bus from Boston to New York, sometimes to New Hampshire or Maine for a day trip.
When I travel on a bus I almost always travel alone. This means I don’t know the person sitting next to me much less of what they might be capable. In other words, what happened to Tim McLean could have happened to me. Or it could have happened to the person sitting in front of me.
The passengers aboard the bus fled to safety once they realized what was going on around them. Some have lambasted the behavior of those passengers. One such condemnation came from Debbie Schlussel. In an entry on her blog dated August 1st (two days after the incident) Schlussel referred to the passengers as “cowards.” With all the subtlety of a ball pein hammer she titled this post “About that Beheading on the Canadian Bus: The Cowards Who Fled & Did Nothing.” (http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/08.about_that_behe.html)
Of course, it is easy to call someone a coward from a safe distance. It also easy to call someone a coward with the comfort you probably will never find yourself confronted by someone wielding a knife. By her own admission, Schlussel states she “would probably run” if she was in the midst of a life and death situation on the count of her gender and her diminutive size. That sounds like a cop out to me. She cannot very well excoriate people for behaving in a way she would have probably behaved herself.
Schlussel rightly lauds the passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 63 who subdued Richard Reid, the infamous failed shoe bomber. The flight which was bound from Paris to Miami had to be diverted to Boston because of Reid’s failed act of terrorism. Those passengers and crew were undoubtedly inspired by the courageous actions of the passengers and crew who attempted to thwart the hijackers on United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, just over three months earlier. Despite the noble efforts of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 they would all perish. The events of September 11th were still fresh in the minds of those aboard American Airlines Flight 63 when Richard Reid disrupted the proceedings. They were determined not to let history repeat itself.
It is worth noting there was no passenger revolt on the three other flights that were hijacked on September 11th – American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 & American Airlines Flight 77 (although there evidently had been discussion amongst the passengers about storming the cockpit on the United Flight 175 according the 9/11 Commission Report). Does Schlussel think the passengers aboard these flights were cowards because they didn’t attempt to overcome the hijackers?
A case can be made that Tim McLean might have been spared some of the indignities done unto him had someone intervened. However, there is no guarantee such efforts would have saved his life. It is also possible more lives would have been lost that day or at the very least a large risk of serious injury befalling a passenger attempting to restrain a man swinging a Rambo knife. The passengers who ran off that bus did so to save their own lives and in some instances to save the lives of their children. It must be remembered there were children on that bus. Are we to begrudge those who wanted to ensure the safety of their children?
I have no doubt those passengers wanted a different outcome. I have no doubt those passengers wish that someone amongst them had saved Tim McLean. But if someone had saved Tim McLean that hero would not have described the others who fled as cowards.
Did Wesley Autrey call cowards the other people standing on a New York City subway platform while he jumped onto the tracks to save the life of a young man who had fallen after having a seizure? No.
Did Lenny Skutnik call cowards the other people standing on the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. after he jumped into the Potomac River to save the life of a woman too weak to grab the line from a helicopter attempting to rescue passengers from Air Florida Flight 90? No.
Did John McCain call cowards any of his fellow soldiers who accepted their release from captivity while he remained a POW? No. Not only did he not refer to his fellow soldiers as cowards he went so far as to decline offers to be released by the Viet Cong so that others could go ahead of him.
Heroes possess the humility not to call others cowards.
So what would I have done? The truth of the matter is that I don’t know. I’ll never know unless I find myself suddenly confronted with such a situation. I hope it is a question I will never have to answer.
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