Friends of mine reported a citizen’s arrest that they made over the weekend. You don’t hear of that happening much these days. It is a rare thing for someone to step out of the comfort of their own reverie and speak up when they recognize something is wrong.

My friends saw a man and a woman who appeared to be struggling near a car that was running with the doors open. They stopped to find out if the two people needed help, or if the woman needed help getting away from the man who seemed to be pulling her toward the car. It turned out that both parties had been drinking and both were too drunk to drive. The woman was practically too drunk to stand up. My friends offered to call someone who could drive the couple home but they said the woman became angry and it quickly became clear that the only way to keep these two folks from behind the wheel was to call the police.

When the police got to the scene, the woman who had been drinking resisted them and was arrested. She and the young man were in their early 20s, old enough to know not to drink and drive. The young man was identified as a teacher at a local high school. Because he was not seen driving and he was willing to call someone to take him home, he was not arrested.

My friends recommended that he find another girlfriend. They also told him to stay off the road when he is drinking. Because of their willingness to take responsibility in their community, my friends possibly saved the lives of this young couple and anyone else who might have crossed their path. There are a couple things that jumped out at me when I heard their story. I wondered if I would have done the same thing if I had been in their shoes.

It made me feel like life really is different when you live outside the big city. Small towns and communities foster more of a sense of ownership and responsibility. I would like to think that others would have done what they did and extended themselves to help someone else.

Also, when you live in a small town, don’t do anything wrong. Plenty of people know you – or they know your mother, brother, cousin or neighbor - and it is hard to keep a secret. People will always remember when the neighbor, cousin, sister, uncle – got arrested.

When I heard that the young man was a teacher, I realized that our responsibility to ourselves and our community does not stop at the end of a work day. Maybe that young teacher had a wake-up call when he realized how close he came to damaging his own life and other’s.

We can only hope that he realized that he is who his students look to for guidance. Guide them well.