Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995                   TAG: 9509110085
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFLY PUT . . .

But now we're really nervous.

WSLS-TV's presumed computer hacker could have caused Washington Redskins fans to riot in the streets throughout the station's Western Virginia viewing area. Cheated out of the chance to see their team play, these folks could have made the Cold War-era Soviets look like pussycats.

What's not known, as of this writing, is the motive of the individual who, computer assisted, allegedly placed more than 3,000 calls to the station's 1-800-VOTETEN line. Was he or she out to make mischief, or is he/she simply a rabid rooter for the Miami Dolphins or New England Patriots?

Either way, the scam didn't work. Station officials figured out that the groundswell of votes for the airing tomorrow of the Miami-New England game was election fraud. The Redskins are on. Their fans can rejoice. And all of us can worry about the day, in the coming Brave New World, when we'll supposedly elect presidents by home computer.

Don Arthur is a lucky man. He was close to death on Tuesday, slumped over the wheel of his truck at a busy downtown intersection, when the light changed from red to green. In fact, doctors later suggested he was clinically dead.

Tywanii Hairston could have honked her horn, pulled around him and gone on her merry way. Instead, Hairston, a former nursing assistant, parked her car to see what was wrong and if she could help. So did John McKee, a driver for a towing company, on his way to a job.

And did they ever help.

Together Hairston and McKee went into action, administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, to Arthur. Though neither had ever used the CPR procedure before, they were both familiar with it. They worked as a team - Hairston starting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; McKee pumping Arthur's chest - until paramedics arrived, took over and got Arthur to a hospital.

Not all who suffer a life-or-death crisis in public are so fortunate to have a couple of passersby even notice, much less take the time and care to come to the person's aid. Arthur is lucky man, but he's not the only one. We're all fortunate to have Good Samaritans in our midst.