Heroes and strangers

This is a good story.

It's the story of Airman 1st Class Troy Nay, who was driving with his fiancee to pick up their marriage license. They didn't get there.

Nay was only recently stationed at the Dover Air Force Base and he's not yet familiar with his way around Delaware. He got turned around yesterday and was driving near Dover's Silver Lake when a pickup truck driven by a 76-year-old man careened off the road and into the frigid water.

When investment broker Michael Shearon arrived moments later Nay was already in the water. So was Wilmington attorney Michael Teichman. Shearon spared his business suit, but not his dignity, plunging in to help in just his skivvies. They managed to open the door of the submerged pickup and got the driver to shore, where Shearon and another stranger administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

The driver is now in the hospital. His condition was not available.

This happened yesterday. Yesterday was also, of course, April 15, the IRS deadline for filing income tax returns. In keeping with the annual tradition, politicians and pundits yesterday paraded across our television screens denouncing the burdens of citizenship and appealing to our most selfish instincts.

Nay and Teichman and Shearon didn't get to hear all these income-tax-day speeches. They were too busy drying off, getting warm and apologizing to supervisors and judges for missing whatever appointments they were headed to when the need of a stranger intervened.