"The Last of the Good Samaritans."

In the early hours of the morning, Tuesday, April 27, 2010, a man died alone and friendless on a street in Queens.
He died of neglect, though the official cause of death will be listed as "multiple stab wounds". He was not an alcoholic, he did not die of a drug overdose; he died as a result of his principles. He died from an act heroism; a rescuer who found no one to rescue him!
Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was a young man; a 31-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who chanced upon a scene of violence between a man and a woman. As he bore witness about what was happening, did he think, "Not in my America? This should not be happening in the Land of Opportunity, my new homeland. Did I flee the violence of drug lords in my native country to find no safety here? No! No! Not in my America!"
Was he motivated by his sense of honor as he stepped in between them, trying to save the woman from her assailant? She was saved, but he was stabbed in her place. As he lay bleeding upon the sidewalk; was he no doubt hoping and praying that rescue would come quickly? Was he buoyed and sustained by a belief that in America, fellow humans would see to his need and rescue would come quickly?
At least seven people walked by him in the last hour of his life. Several checked him out as he lay in a pool of his own blood. One even lifted him and saw his bloody wounds, before dropping him back and hurrying away. None of them tried to help him. Each hurried away in fear, in panic, in unconcern for the life of a fellow human being. What could they have been thinking? That it wasn't their problem? Someone else will do what is necessary, I needn't concern myself?
The Bible tells us it would be like this in the last days; "... men shall be lovers of their own selves, ... without natural affection, ... fierce, despisers of those that are good." II Tim. 3:2-3.
Jesus explained what it meant to be a neighbor in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A man, a fellow-traveler on the dangerous highway of life is robbed, beaten and left for dead. He, too, hoped for rescue. He likewise had people hurry by and refuse to accept the very human burden of rescue. He must wait until someone offered to help; for him, help came in time. But not for Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax; not for the last of the Good Samaritans.