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There’s an article in today’s Boston Globe about an MBTA driver, Patrick Coughlin, who helped a woman allegedly being harassed on his bus by a fellow passenger. After ordering the man to change seats and then, when the behavior continued, demanding he get off his bus, Coughlin called for backup, and the man was arrested. As someone who used to live in Boston years ago, often travelling alone at night by public transportation, I can relate to the woman’s fear, and I admire Coughlin’s courage in intervening. So often it seems we look away from the pain of strangers, afraid to get involved—whether it’s stopping to help a stranded traveler or, even scarier, speaking out against another’s aggressive behavior. You have to be careful because you never know who might have a weapon, or whether it’s legitimate or some sort of scam. Yet, when we look away from another’s need, we lose a little of our own humanity. Coughlin put his personal safety at risk by refusing to allow a man to harass a woman on his bus, and that makes him a hero.

Another sort of hero, one who showed courage and dogged persistence, is Harry Markopolos, the Whitman man who struggled for nine years to get federal authorities to stop Bernard Madoff and his $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Today’s Globe covers Markopolos’ testimony before Congress where he describes his near-decade of efforts to get someone at the Boston and New York offices of the Securities and Exchange Commission to do their job. The fact that Markopolos spoke out in the first place, not to mention his relentless pursuit of justice despite years of bureaucratic brush-off, is remarkable and inspiring. I am relieved to know there are still heroes among us; everyday folks who try to do the right thing in spite of the risks. I like to think that when those opportunities arise in my life, I also will act with courage and persistence to be a person I can admire.