A Feel Good Story From France that Could Not Happen Here in the US – At Least Not Now

This morning, CNN is reporting on an amazing “feel good” story from France.

Mamadou Gassama, a 22-year old Malian migrant, scaled the outside of a Paris apartment building to rescue a 4-year old dangling from the balcony of an apartment building.

The video, is quite remarkable and it restores one’s faith in humanity. The French responded by giving Gassama an audience with President Emmanuel Macron, expediting his French citizenship, and offering him a job with the Paris fire department.

It is the kind of story that is similar to those that one has been accustomed to seeing in the US, prior to the arrival of Donald Trump. In this day and age, however, these types of things just don’t come from the US. First, an immigrant wouldn’t be able to risk his life to save someone (immigrants are hiding from Trump). Second, a black man scaling the façade of an apartment building would have been shot before reaching the second floor and it would be determined to be justifiable homicide and our President would have declared the shooter to be a well-meaning person. Third, as a nation, the US has become completely devoid of empathy so we would have extradited Gassama back to Mali, at great cost, rather than treat him as a hero.