🏁 Axios Finish Line: Parallel universe

Dispatch from Normal America | Monday, July 11, 2022

Open in app View in browser     Axios Finish Line By Mike Allen, Erica Pandey and Jim VandeHei ·Jul 11, 2022 Jul 11, 2022 Welcome back. We're at finishline@axios.com. Smart Brevity™ count: 498 words ... 2 mins.     1 big thing: When Normal America springs into action Bobby Shapiro, one of the heroes of Highland Park, at a memorial for victims of the mass shooting. Photo: Roger Schneider/AP Here's an encouraging dispatch from Normal America: Neighbors in Highland Park, Ill., sprang into action to help save lives after the mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade. Why it matters: Before emergency workers arrived, the real first responders were everyday citizens. Nearly a dozen people — including off-duty doctors, nurses and a football coach — were among the first to administer first aid. Between the lines: Finish Line has been highlighting Normal America — your neighbors and coworkers, who spend their free time volunteering and raising kids, not tweeting or watching cable news. They get less attention than the loudmouths. But when you think through the circle of people you truly know well, you'll find there are more helpers than hotheads. This apt new illustration was captured for AP by Harm Venhuizen of Report for America, a nonprofit service program that places journalists in local newsrooms: From bystanders who tied tourniquets and administered CPR, to people who rescued and cared for an orphaned 2-year-old covered in blood, many heroes at the parade ran toward the gunfire. Among them: Bobby Shapiro, 52, ran down Central Avenue in socks, trucking toward the street corner where gunfire had erupted just moments before. He had been changing out of his cycling shoes. Shapiro, a tech salesman with no medical training, began helping an 88-year-old man with a gunshot wound in his thigh and another in his abdomen. He was joined by Dr. Wendy Rush, an anesthesiologist with decades of experience in trauma centers. Rush helped the man breathe. Shapiro and another bystander took turns compressing his chest and putting pressure on his wounds. The man, Stephen Straus, didn't make it. Former high-school football coach Brad Hokin — who has been to the parade 52 times in his 58 years — was at his usual spot at the top of the route. When the shooting started, he took off running past those with minor injuries — and toward people he could tell needed help most urgently. With no medical training, he held pressure on gunshot wounds and helped EMTs load the wounded onto gurneys. The bottom line: The aftermath in Highland Park would be even grimmer without the courageous instincts of those parade-goers — who instantly went from spectators to heroes. Share this story.     A message from Axios Effective internal communication saves you time and money     Leaders who communicate with purpose - connecting their vision to the work employees do every day and taking a stance on difficult issues - have the best shot at strengthening a Hybrid 2.0 culture and keeping a job-hopping generation from leaving. Learn how to meet this challenge head on.     🏠 Neighbors save lives Political scientist Daniel Aldrich's neighbor saved his life during Hurricane Katrina. After that, Aldrich wrote a book, "Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery," on just how essential neighbors are. He studied Katrina + natural disasters in Japan and India. In each case, he found the people who survived tragedies weren't the richest or the most powerful — but the ones who knew the most people, Aldrich told NPR. Neighbors warned each other to get out, and went looking for the missing when disaster struck. The bottom line: If you don't know a neighbor, knock on the door and say hello.   Thanks for reading. Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: