1,000 Words: The escalator

These days, we’ll take a little hopefulness anywhere we can find it, and if you’ve been reading the comments since last week’s court decision in St. Paul, we can use a little hopefulness.

Paula Accorsi Picard provided it with a photo she took at a mall in Holyoke, Mass., recently.

“It was a normal, simple thing that a lot of people do in the world and it just never gets seen,” Alonzo Johnson, 23, tells the Boston Globe today of his act of kindness helping an old man on and off an escalator. “When I found out, I was in shock. The whole attention and everything that it got, it just grew so fast.”

“My mom always told me and my little brothers that if you see someone who needs help, you should assist them and just go for it,” he said. “You never know who is watching you; you never know what’s going to happen. You’ve just got to keep doing the right thing and staying positive.”