I saw this post on Facebook today from a person I have friended because he is a friend of good friends of mine. [View all]

Last edited Sun Feb 22, 2026, 04:24 PM - Edit history (3)

I don't know him personally. I Googled this situation and could find no evidence that this was a story my Facebook friend lifted from another incident and claimed as his own. It is long, but a good, touching read on a Sunday morning in today's MAGA world.

"Yesterday at Walmart there was a traffic backup at the exit. When I pulled forward, I saw why. An elderly disabled man was sitting in the middle of the roadway in his wheelchair, holding a fistful of crumpled bills and begging someone to give him a ride home because his electric wheelchair had died. He wasn’t on the sidewalk. He wasn’t tucked out of the way. He was in the road.
It was cold as Hel, and the man was visibly shaking. And people were steering their cars around him. Not carts. Cars. One by one, inching past him like he was roadkill instead of a human being asking for help.
When I got to him, I told him every seat in my truck was full of groceries, but I’d rush home, unload, and come back for him if he was still there. I drove across town, hauled everything inside as fast as I could, and came straight back. I figured that he'd be long gone by the time I could make it back.
He was still there, people were still driving around him.
So I stopped traffic, got out, helped him into my truck, loaded up his wheelchair, and drove him home.
Now, I understand why women wouldn’t stop. Any man, even an old disabled one, has the potential to be a threat to women. That’s just reality. But there were plenty of able-bodied men there with nothing to fear who couldn’t be bothered to spend ten minutes helping someone freezing in the middle of a road.
I’m not telling this because I want applause. There’s nothing heroic about doing what basic decency demands, it should be the bare minimum. But it’s worth noting that many of the same people who drove past him would loudly claim to follow a faith that commands care for the poor, the widow, the stranger, the needy. They talk about it endlessly. They quote it. They preach it. They try to legislate it.
But when it was time to act, they turned the steering wheel and went home. All the words. All the verses. All the talk about charity and loving your neighbor. And when an old man was freezing in the middle of the road, it was easier to adjust the wheel and keep moving.
It was the heathen who stopped the truck. Not because I’m exceptionally moral. Not because I need anybody's recognition. But because principles that never reach the hands are just noise. If your faith is loud online but silent in a freezing parking lot, it isn’t faith- it’s performance. If your morality exists only in slogans and not in the moment someone needs you, then it’s nothing more than decoration.
Deeds matter. Reputation follows deeds. The stories told about you will not be about the verses you posted or the opinions you shared- they will be about what you did when it would have been easier to look away.
Yesterday, a man was sitting in the road, shivering, and dozens of people decided he was someone else’s problem. I refuse to be that kind of man."

UPDATE: I completely understand the skepticism some have expressed about this post. I went back to the original Facebook post and looked at other posts from the poster, Brad Shelby. He is a curator and science communicator at a virtual Oklahoma natural history museum and many of his political posts would do well here at DU. I stand by my post here at DU.