On one of his programs years ago, legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey told the thrilling story of a man named Ray Blankenship. It seems that one summer morning as Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window and saw something that made his heart nearly stop. A small girl had fallen into a rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his home and was rapidly being swept downstream.

Blankenship knew that not far away the drainage ditch disappeared beneath the road and then emptied into the main culvert. If he didn’t reach her in time, she could be lost to the churning water.

He dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the child who was floundering in the water. Then he hurled himself into the rapidly moving stream, grabbed the child’s arm and fought to …