STATE OF OPPORTUNITY. Can Kids in Michigan Get Ahead?
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This special reporting project wrapped up in May 2017. Read more.

"She's an action hero...with a conscience."

Rogers and her daughter
Natalie Kolb
/
MLive

Carmesha Rogers' selflessness in hustling three Muskegon children out of the range of gun fire was a story that Seattle Attorney Michael Mulvihill thought should've gone viral. He heard part of the story when he woke up one morning on a Seattle NPR affiliate and scoured the web to find the whole story. 

Mulvihill was overwhelmed with the magnitude of Rogers' act. It made sense to him as part of the "social contract" we agree to as members of society who look out for one another. "I thought it was incredible that [she] would go the extra mile...not just the extra mile, the extra marathon to jump in there for people I don't think she knew those children or their parents...she knew they were neighborhood kids and they needed help." 

"That's the whole fabric of the social contract we're supposed to have with each other."

Mulvihill contacted reporter Dustin Dwyer, who wrote a series about Rogers and gun violence in Muskegon. He wanted to find out how he might help Rogers in her recovery. After making a donation toward Rogers' recovery expenses, he also posted to a lawyers' listserv to see if he could generate donation. There's no way of knowing if other lawyers chipped in---he only heard from one other person---but Mulvihill wonders what it would take to have large-scale recognition of Rogers' valiant act? 

We asked Dustin how Carmesha's doing. He said she seems to be recovering well. In this video from MLive you can hear Carmesha and her mother discuss the process of being back: to health, to her sense of humor, and to the world. 

Have you been  moved to action by a story you heard on State of Opportunity? Share it with us and other listeners on our Facebook page or in the comments below.

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