“I was raised to keep to yourself.”

This is what the mother of the suspect in Mayor Tom Barrett’s beating said on Tuesday. She also accused the Mayor of provoking her son.

Seeing this just galvanized the feelings I’ve been having since I first heard the circumstances of Barrett’s beating on Sunday morning. Of course, I believe that he is a hero, as do many other people. He saw a woman and a young child being threatened by a man on the street. The woman was calling for help, asking someone to call 911.

Barrett did. And then he went one step further. One step further than I don’t think most people would take. He put his safety in danger by stepping in and trying to calm the situation. Would most people do that? We’d like to think we would, but would we?

The gnawing feeling in the pit of Barrett’s stomach as he approached the scene, the taste of adrenaline in his mouth, the fear for the safety of his family who were with him; he must’ve been breathing fast, his heart beating and sweat breaking out even as he tried to exude a calming influence.

I am not sure the majority of people could actually do what he did. Call 911, yes, from the safety of the other side of the street. But walk into a volatile situation? One in 5 of us, maybe.

That’s why we see what he did as heroic, because it is different. It is rare. It is something to be admired. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the overcoming of fear.

Thank you, Mayor Barrett. I am glad that you were not “raised to keep to yourself.” And I hope that you will make a full and speedy recovery.

And that your story becomes a lesson to us all.