Do you let yourself get involved in sticky situations, like a fight? Or do you just duck your head and scuttle off? Talk about a time that you did get involved. What happened? Are you glad that you helped?

-- Atara (atara@raex.com), May 11, 2001

Answers

I generally don't get involved.

Back when I was working at National Institutes of Health a few years ago, I used to take the bus to work. I generally half-napped on the ride home. One afternoon, my nap was interrupted by two guys arguing. Apparently, one guy had stepped on the other guy's nice shiny shoes. He had muttered an apology, but either Mr. Nice Shoes didn't hear it or this wasn't good enough or something, because their exchanges continued until Mr. Nice Shoes took a swipe at the other guy, who was sitting in the seat in front of me.

I decided I didn't want to be near this guy if Mr. Nice Shoes decided to pull out a gun or something, so I got up and moved to a seat at the back of the bus. The bus driver yelled at them to either calm down or get off the bus, and since both of them were itching for a fight, they both got out at the next stop. Last we saw them, they were duking it out in the middle of an intersection in downtown Bethesda while rush hour traffic weaved around them.

-- Xydexx Squeakypony (xydexx@my-deja.com), May 11, 2001.

Unless I'm quite obviously not going to be able to do anything (I'm no fan of trying to interrupt things being done by people far larger or more numerous than me) I do step in in anything that takes more than a couple of seconds. A few years ago (between around 16 to 18) people seemed to take an odd delight in threatening me with violence in public places - I always hoped if it came to anything, someone would step in.

-- rvn (about@blank.dot), May 12, 2001.