Originally Posted by clavus

You know, its really easy to say, "I woulda done something," but it is another matter entirely when you are right there. Sometimes, crazy stuff happens and people aren't prepared to deal with it. THe whole thing might last 25 seconds, but they spend 30 seconds saying, "Holy shit, I better do something." And every time the guy throws a punch, they think, "Well, its over now."

I was once with a group of friends (one of whom was a fairly bad-ass black-belt who later became a SEAL) when a simar thing happened. We were standing around drinking and acting stupid, and someone who we barely knew blew up on my friend (not the SEAL-guy). He yelled at him, reached out and tore his earring out of his head, and punched him down. He yelled something else, then walked out the door.

What was remarkable was that even though we were all good friends, NOBODY did anything until the guy walked away. We were all ready to kick some ass 30 seconds after the guy walked out the door. But during the 10 second yelling/punching event, every single one of us stood there and went, "HUH?!"

You never really know what you'll do until you do it.