Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502180036
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 17-year-old Hines happened upon a burning mobile home last week, ran in as it melted around him "like a marshmallow," and carried 12 children and two elderly baby-sitters outside. His thoughts afterward were not of his own bravery in saving 14 lives, but of the painful regret he felt that he didn't get one child, a 9-year-old boy, out.
Such caring for others is in contrast to many of the glimpses of youth dominant in some media, especially in violent horror stories about ever-younger criminals who act with chilling lack of emotion.
Such reports are not to be discounted. They reflect an alarming increase in antisocial behavior among youngsters who haven't even reached their teens. Society cannot afford to shield itself from the truth of such a trend.
But Hines' respect for life, so profound that it led him to repeatedly jeopardize his own, should be a reminder that, frightening as they are, the sociopaths are the aberrations among today's youngsters.
Few ever will be called upon to act with such presence of mind and courage in so critical a situation. And many decent people would falter if they were. But Hines is that heartening example of the ordinary person who is capable of the extraordinary - even among those who don't always walk the straight and narrow.
Hines has a record of delinquency. His high school couldn't honor him for his courage as officials had planned because he had cut school. But his truancy shouldn't overshadow his heroism, his high school principal commented.
Indeed.
Rather than diminish the act, it somehow adds poignancy. Why, one wonders, does a young man of such value as a human being damage his own future by staying away? What is the key to drawing him back and helping him to enrich his life - not in a spirit of charity, but in recognition that society needs what is best in young Hines?
by CNB