Salute those who run towards danger

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You may feel that you have already heard enough about the terrible events in the Bondi Junction shopping centre - but forgive me this: we should salute those who run towards danger.

The police officer is obviously a hero. But the picture of bystanders who confronted the murderer also makes me stop and gasp.

The Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, came up with the right phrase when he said they displayed "instinctive bravery".

Who would blame Inspector Amy Scott if she had thought for a sliver of a moment, "Maybe I should wait for backup"? But she didn't. She moved forward and confronted a crazed man bent on murder.

And French construction worker Damien Guerot and his friend Silas Despreaux could have run one way, out to safety on the street - but they didn't. They held the man at bay with what seems to be a metal pole. Every moment they kept him back, fierce but immobile on the escalator, was a moment when he couldn't pursue even more innocent victims.

These stories of bravery are legion. Every time there is a mass shooting in America, a story seems to emerge of someone who died saving others. Think of the president of a Sikh temple near Milwaukee who tried - and failed - to disarm a gunman at the cost of his own life.

I remember the rows of empty coat hooks in fire houses in New York in the days after 9/11, each hook not holding the helmet of someone who had run towards danger.

Actually, "run towards danger" is the wrong way of putting it. They walked towards danger.

They assessed and still decided that forward was their direction of duty.

There has been some research on heroism.

A psychiatrist at Yale University concluded that a small minority of individuals remain cool under the most stressful situations.

Professor Deane Aikins studied soldiers on severe, realistic exercises, and found that those who didn't panic had lower levels of a stress hormone but higher levels of another hormone which seemed to calm them down.

"There are some individuals who, when confronted with extreme stress, their hormone profile is rather unique," he said, according to Agence France Presse.

"It doesn't reach the same peak as the rest of us. So, we're all ready to scream in our chairs, but there are certain individuals who just don't get as stressed."

This may be true but I doesn't devalue the heroism of those who went towards danger in Bondi Junction or the Twin Towers or in those countless shootings in America.

We all make choices. It is (thankfully) not usually whether to confront a man bent on murder. But it may well be to tell someone spouting racist rubbish at a bus driver to shut up. Or to offer help at an accident.

It's a choice.

So salute those who make the right decision. Choose not to walk on by.

And feel better about humanity because of Inspector Amy Scott, Damien Guerot and Silas Despreaux

HAVE YOUR SAY: Have you ever found yourself in a situation where had to make a choice like this? If not, how do you think you'd react? How do you feel about the people who put themselves in harm's way for our sakes? Email your response to echidna@theechidna.com.au.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- The Federal Court found that on the balance of probabilities Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019. Accordingly, Mr Lehrmann has lost his defamation case against Network Ten and its presenter Lisa Wilkinson. But Justice Michael Lee also criticised Network Ten. He said the team behind its program about the case should have done more to follow up contradictory information provided about the allegation.

- Yixuan Cheng was identified as the sixth victim of the stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction alongside Pikria Darchia, Jade Young, Dawn Singleton, Ashlee Good and security guard Faraz Tahir. Ms Cheng was a Chinese national studying in Sydney.

- Israel said that its military had approved "offensive and defensive action" plans following a drone attack by Iran. Tehran said that Israeli retaliation would result in a "much larger response".

THEY SAID IT: "I want to honour the heroes for whom there are no days of honour, no ceremonies, no medals, no recognition. These heroes are all around you, and they are complete strangers. They won't reveal themselves until something very bad is happening. And then you will see something amazing. You will see the very definition of humanity" - NPR reporter Laurel Dalrymple.

YOU SAID IT: John Hanscombe opined about "the power of outrage" as exploited by politicians and shock jocks. He said: "Last week's spectacle of Peter Dutton conflating the ugly October 9 pro-Palestinian rally with the Port Arthur massacre was a cack-handed attempt to generate and harness outrage."

You tended to agree.

Anita said: "It starts off in response to a legitimate cause and in the blink of an eye, is ignited by anything offending their limited sensibilities. Apparently Trumpites have it in spades! Let's hope it does not migrate to Australian shores, though it's on the way."

Tony said: "A better use of people's outrage would be to join a Landcare group and remove invasive weeds, or re-plant local species to restore native plants."

Trevor said: "I'm outraged by all this modern outrage."

And John mentioned his upbringing on a diet of Tintin and the outrage that can prompt because of the lad's apparently racist, sexist and colonialist views.

To which Dominique in Baton Rouge in Louisiana (!!!!) said: "Children are quite capable of understanding parody and not taking themselves too seriously. By the way, if we are so worried about bad influences on our children, why are we allowing them to play ultra-violent video games?"