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THE KINDEST PEOPLE: BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER (VOLUME 2) By David Bruce Copyright 2013 by Bruce D. Bruce SMASHWORDS EDITION Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support. Dedicated to Lori, Paul, Marge, and Brian Advice If you stop on a highway to help someone, be careful. I have read many, many newspaper articles about Good Samaritans being hit and injured or killed by vehicles when they stop to help someone. Sometimes, the best thing to do is simply to call 911 or whatever your country’s emergency number is. NOTE: The deeds are numbered so that you can look up the sources in the Endnotes. ••• THE KINDEST PEOPLE: BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER (VOLUME 2) CHAPTER 1: Stories 1-50 “The Lady was Screaming, ‘My Baby! My Baby’s Blue! … She’s Not Breathing!’” On 11 October 2012 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Keaton Mason and her fiancée were in their car when Keaton’s baby decided to be born one month early. They were at the truck stop at I-40 and Choctaw Road, and when their baby daughter was born in the passenger seat of a white Honda, there was a problem. Jennifer Morris, who called 911, said, “It was crazy. The lady was screaming, ‘My baby! My baby’s blue! … She’s not breathing!’” The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby girl’s neck. Paramedic Sandra Lesperance said later, “Her angel was there. He did everything right.” A homeless man named Gary Wilson, who is from Montana, became a hero. He freed the baby girl’s neck, tied the umbilical cord, and rubbed the baby girl’s back. She started breathing. Truck-stop employee Waneva Morris said, “I would describe him as kind of looking like Jesus. He had the long hair, the long beard. [He was] a very nice gentleman.” Keaton said, “He kept me pretty calm actually. He said, ‘Everything’s OK. She’s OK. She’s breathing.’” Mr. Wilson had been holding a sign saying, “Memphis.” After he had saved the life of the baby girl, truck-stop employees offered him a free meal and a free place to sleep. The next morning, he was gone. The baby girl, Tatum Brown, weighed four pounds, 11 ounces. Doctors said that she is doing well. (1) “MY GOD, BUT YOU’RE LOVELY” On 21 February 1970, actress Françoise Pascal, who was pregnant, went to actress Vivianne Ventura’s house. Unfortunately, a fire broke out. She was on the third floor, and many people — including film director Roman Polanski and film producer Gene Gutowsky — held a sheet for her to jump on. She jumped, missed the sheet, and landed on some iron railings — her neck was between two railings, and her left arm was impaled on a railing. Unconscious, she was taken to a hospital. She lost her baby. Drugged on morphine to stop the pain, she drifted in and out of consciousness. She vaguely remembers an Indian doctor who comforted her. Once she came out of the morphine-induced haze, she learned that her friend the comedian Peter Sellers had visited her, dressed as an Indian doctor so that members of the press would not recognize him. He left a card for her; on the card he had written, “MY GOD, BUT YOU’RE LOVELY.” (2) A Complete New Sound System Max Geldray played jazz saxophone on Great Britain’s The Goon Show, two of whose stars were Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. When Mr. Geldray needed a vein removed, he did not tell anyone because it was a minor operation. However, because he is a celebrity, news of the operation got into the newspapers. When Mr. Geldray returned home after the operation, he found his home filled with flowers and fruit — gifts from Mr. Secombe. And Mr. Sellers arrived and carried Mr. Geldray, who couldn’t walk, to his car, and then drove him to a shopping center. There, Mr. Sellers filled the car with a complete new sound system that was better than the one Mr. Geldray already had. (3) “Believe Me, I Spent 20 Years Racking Up Huge Debts Pursuing Comedy” In October 2009, the primary sponsor of U.S. Speedskating — the Dutch bank DSB — went bankrupt. The 2010 Winter Games were coming up, and the company could not donate the $300,000 it had pledged. Luckily on 2 November 2009, comedian Stephen Colbert announced that his show was becoming the team’s primary sponsor. He asked viewers to make small donations, and the U.S. Speedskating team received over $300,000 donated by approximately 9,000 people. It was a good investment — the team won 10 medals at the Olympic Games. Why did Mr. Colbert do this good deed? He explained, “Believe me, I spent 20 years racking up huge debts pursuing comedy.” (4) Cricket Superstar Muttiah “Murali” Muralithar is a Superstar Good Samaritan Cricket superstar Muttiah “Murali” Muralithar is a good person. Chandika Hathurasinghe and Murali once stopped at a small café close to the Parliament grounds in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A boy working there recognized Murali and asked him for a signed photograph. Murali did not have one on him, but he promised to bring one by later. He did not forget. The very next day, after cricket practice, he went to the small café and gave the boy a signed photograph. Muali is talkative. Mahela Jayawardene said in an article in the Guardian, “He is the sort of guy you want in the dressing room, but sometimes you think: ‘Why is he in the dressing room — he won’t stop talking!’ When he exhausts us, he goes to see the opposition. He is the only player I have ever known who spends more time in the opponents’ dressing room than his own. You never sit next to him on an aeroplane because you won’t get any sleep. Lal, the masseur, has that job. But ask him to make a speech and you will be lucky to get 10 words.” Murali does serious good in the world. In 2005, he visited the town of Batticaloa on Sri Lanka’s east coast. It had been hit hard by a tsunami, and Murali arranged for 10 trucks to distribute emergency supplies in the relief camps. (5) Good Deed at the Famous Five Stand A fan of the Hibernian Football Club in Edinburgh, Scotland, copied and posted this on the football team’s website on 7 October 2012: “Bit of a long shot that the person will read this, but just wanted to say Thanks so much to the kind person that found my son’s iPod Touch in the toilets in the Famous Five stand and handed it in. He only got it less than 2 months ago so it’s pretty new. He was half way down St. Clair Street before he realised he’d lost it and we thought there was no chance he’d get it back. He was so upset that it was gone, we were amazed it had been handed in. So anyway if you read this or if anyone knows who it was can they pass on my thanks for renewing my faith in human nature and making an 8-year-old boy very happy again.” The Famous Five are Hibernian’s 1940s and 1950s forward line of Bobby Johnstone, Willie Ormond, Lawrie Reilly, Gordon Smith, and Eddie Turnbull, all of whom have been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. The north stand at Easter Road is named in their honor. (6) Don’t Bully Chy Johnson; Her Bodyguards are the Football Team Chy Johnson, a 16-year-old special-needs student, suffers from a brain disorder called microcephaly. Her head is smaller than it otherwise would be, and her life expectancy is only 25 or 30 years instead of three score and ten years. Her brain disorder also made her the target of bullies at Arizona’s Queen Creek High School who threw trash at her. Chy’s mother, Elizabeth Johnson, learned about the bullying and contacted the school’s starting quarterback: Carson Jones. He and other members of the football team are now Chy’s protection against bullies. Elizabeth said, “I emailed Carson, told him that Chy was having some issues, was just wanting some names. He took it a step further and went and gathered Chy up at lunch and she’s been eating lunch with them ever since.” The bullying stopped as Carson, teammate Tucker Workman, and many other Queen Creek Bulldogs started looking out for Chy. Carson said, “I guess they’ve seen her with us or something.” Tucker said, “We’re doing good and everything for us is going well but someone else needs to feel good, too.” Chy called the Bulldogs “her team.” She added, “They save me because I won’t get hurt again. They’re not mean to me because all my boys love me.” As of 26 October 2012, the Bulldogs were undefeated. (7) “It’s Sickening. And I was Embarrassed” On 7 October 2012, the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Baltimore Ravens, 9-6. When Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel was knocked unconscious, many Kansas Chief fans cheered. (The Chiefs got off to a poor start in the season, and many fans blamed Mr.