A New York bus driver went above and beyond the call of duty earlier this month when he came across a troubled woman standing on an overpass and decided to stop his bus full of passengers to help her.
Driving the Elmwood 20 bus southbound toward Buffalo State College on Oct. 18, Darnell Barton saw the young woman and stopped the bus in the middle of the overpass, a local TV station reported.
SEE ALSO: Nevada Marine-turned-teacher was ‘hero’ for shielding students from gunman
“It didn’t seem real because what was going on around, traffic and pedestrians were going by as normal” Mr. Barton told WIVB.
Audible on the bus’ surveillance video is Mr. Barton shouting from the driver’s seat: “Ma’am, are you okay?”
When she didn’t answer he walked toward her.
Image: WIVB Channel 4, New York
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Image: WIVB Channel 4, New York more >
“She was distraught, she was distant, she was really disconnected,” the driver told the station. “I grabbed her arm and put my arm around her and said ‘Do you want to come on this side of the guardrail?’ And that was actually the first time she spoke to me — she said yes.”
Video shows Mr. Barton lifting the woman from the other side of the railing and sitting down with her on the sidewalk.
“It was meant to be. I was supposed to be there for her at that moment and I was. I wanted to convey that whatever it was, I’m going to help you through and it’s not as serious as jumping onto the 198,” he told the station.
They were soon joined by a corrections officer who had seen her from the road and another good Samaritan who said she was a counselor, WIVB reported.
Loud applause and cheers can be heard on the tape.
“I feel like I did what I was supposed to do at the time. I’m a football guy so when you sit the bench and the coach calls your number, you gotta go in there make a play, do what the play calls for, and I think that’s what I did,” he said.

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Not really an article, just something that put a smile on my face this morning :)

YOU'RE MAKING A BASELESS ASSUMPTION.

Then I am still at a loss.

I'm not comparing them, I'm quoting you back at yourself.

Individuals free to worship what they please and respect the rights of others to do the same is what I was getting at. Getting into the whole thing of separating church and state is something else entirely.

I can think of a number of reason why you would compare those quotes so I do not know what point you are trying to make.

Well that's not so much an example of a secular society but of an accepting, pluralist society. Which is great to see. Love hearing stuff like that.

humanity as a whole is not responsible for what an individual or group of individuals does.

You need to stop making baseless assumptions.

You could also read his statement as saying "I have every faith in mankind in the world, it's impossible to gain any more faith than I already have".

Not sure that's what he meant though.

Cry harder emo kid.

-PB

US school shooting suspect talked down by bookkeeper
From: AP August 22, 2013 12:55PM



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Shots fired at US elementary school
Police in Georgia have a suspect in custody after reports of gunfire at an Atlanta-area elementary school.
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Antoinette Tuff, who talked down the shooter at a Georgian school. Photo: Facebook
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A MAN armed with an assault rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition entered a primary school in the US state of Georgia, held employees hostage and fired on police.
Dramatic overhead television footage captured young students racing out of the building. The situation "could have turned into something really ugly", said the local police chief, if not for the calm intervention of a school clerk.

Antoinette Tuff, the school's bookkeeper, persuaded the gunman to lay down his weapons and surrender to police. She may have saved lives.

antoinette tuff
Antoinette Tuff, who talked down the shooter at a Georgian school. Photo: Facebook
Just a week into the new school year, more than 800 students in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade were evacuated by teachers and police on Tuesday from Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, a few kilometres east of Atlanta.

DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric L Alexander said the suspect, identified later as 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill, fired at least half a dozen shots from inside the administration area and officers returned fire when he was alone and they had a clear shot. Alexander said at a news conference Hill surrendered shortly after and he had other weapons, but police had no motive for the incident.

"He walked in with 498 rounds of ammunition," Alexander said. "I think we can make a reasonable assumption that he came here to do some harm."

Though the school has a system where people must be buzzed in by staff, the gunman may have slipped inside behind someone authorised to be there, Alexander said.

Georgia School Shooting
A child peers out the window of a school bus as busses arrive with students after an incident at Ronald McNair Discovery Learning Academy. Picture: AP
Hill never got past the front office, where he held one or two employees captive, the chief said. He has been charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

A woman in the school office, Antoinette Tuff, called WSB-TV as it was happening to say the gunman had asked her to contact the Atlanta station and police.

WSB said during the call shots were heard in the background. Assignment editor Lacey Lecroy said she spoke with the woman, who said she was alone with the man and his gun was visible.

In an interview on ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer, Tuff said she worked to convince the gunman to put down his weapons and ammunition.

SWAT
SWAT team arrives at the school. Picture: Twitter
"He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die," Tuff told ABC.

She told him her life story, about how her marriage fell apart after 33 years and the "roller-coaster" of opening her own business.

"I told him, 'OK, we all have situations in our lives'," she said. "It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too." Then Tuff said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down, empty his pockets and backpack on the floor.

"I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it," she said.

DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Michael Thurmond praised faculty and authorities who got the young students to safety, staying calm and following plans in place. All teachers and students made it out of the school unharmed.

Georgia School Shooting
Relatives, including Misty Henderson, center, are overcome with emotion as the buses with their loved ones pull into the parking lot of a Walmart in Decatur to be reunited with them. Picture: AP
"It's a blessed day, all of our children are safe," Mr Thurmond said at the news conference.

"This was a highly professional response on the ground by DeKalb County employees assisted by law enforcement."

Officials cut a hole in a fence to make sure students running from the building could get even farther away to a nearby street, he said. SWAT teams went from classroom to classroom to make sure people were out.

They sat waiting in a field until school buses came to take them to their parents and relatives at a nearby Wal-Mart, where cheers erupted when the first bus arrived about three hours after the shooting.
Jonessia White, the mother of a kindergartner, said the school's doors are normally locked.

"I took (my son) to school this morning and had to be buzzed in," she said. "So I'm wondering how the guy got in the door."



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/shots-fired-at-us-primary-school-mcnair-elementary-school/story-fndir2ev-1226700992646#ixzz2cgTLBXTI

There was a lot of pictures when the first Arab Spring started in Egypt of Christians surrounding Muslims and protecting them from the soldiers during prayers.

And that, my friends, is how a secular society should operate.

Muslims protecting a church in Egypt.

Cry harder emo kid.

-PB

You need to learn to read.

Why delay the inevitable then, go top yourself you mopey c*nt.

-PB

Nothing could make me gain faith in humanity