One of the most vivid memories of my childhood, back when I was really small, was the day that two of my brothers and I were riding with my dad and we came around a curve in the road to find a woodcutter whose load had shifted on his truck, scattering his firewood.

The black man and his son were furiously trying to gather the wood and Dad pulled off on the shoulder and said simply, “Let’s go, boys.” My younger brother was hardly old enough to walk but we all helped carry wood to be stacked back on the truck. To this moment I still cherish the look of kindness and gratitude in that black man’s eyes because that day, when he was in a tight spot, we were all brothers.

That’s why I still can’t understand what happened several weeks ago in tiny South Fulton, Tenn., where firefighters stood and watched a mobile home burn because the owner hadn’t paid his fire-protection fee. South Fulton is located at the uppermost corner in west Tennessee, right at the Kentucky state line, and is called South Fulton because only the state line separates it from Fulton, Ky.

Last Wednesday a trash fire got out of hand and ignited Gene Cranick’s doublewide, which is located outside the city limits. The fire department was called but while the fire truck was en route, it was discovered that the Cranicks had not paid the $75 fee required for home owners outside the small town.

The Cranicks, who had always paid in the past, said they forgot but when they asked for help, fire chief David Wilds refused. The Cranicks pleaded that their pets were still inside but that made no difference. Instead, a couple of firefighters watered the lawn of a house nearby to guard against sparks because the neighbors had paid the annual $75 fee.

So eye-watering pictures and nauseating videos of the firemen standing beside their idle equipment as they watched the Cranick’s home burn down have now been circulated across the nation. South Fulton officials defend the decision, saying if they had fought the fire then nobody would pay the $75 “pay to spray” fee anymore.

There were no human fatalities in the fire but those several dogs and cats perished and, of course, the Cranicks lost everything they had. Later in the day the Cranick’s son, Timothy, went to the fire hall and clobbered Chief Wilds in the nose. He was promptly arrested for assault and later released.

Since last Wednesday, the great majority of those who believe in American values and ideals have become incensed by the callous disregard for a fellow man in trouble, and the outcry is understandable.

One woman wrote to the New York Daily News and said, “When I think of our firefighters on 9/11 and what they did compared to these redneck slobs, I want to (vomit). What is wrong with these people?

"First of all, this is an old man, and he may have forgotten to pay, but when he did offer, they refused. Why? To prove a point? Sick. God Bless our firefighters in NY, as for the ones in (Tennessee), I spit on them. Rednecks are always crying about taxes, and yet red states get more money from the federal government than blue states.”

Another in New York wrote, “These loser firefighters should be shot. I’m glad this wasn’t me because I’d be in jail for murder.”

Pete Moore wrote a letter to the Memphis newspaper that said, in part, “I am appalled and embarrassed that anyone would stand and do nothing while someone’s property is destroyed and animals die needlessly, if they had the means to help. ”

Moore added, “The South Fulton mayor, city manager, fire chief and anyone else involved in this incident should resign or be fired. The intelligent technique would have been to put the fire out and assess the homeowner for the cost. South Fulton and the state of Tennessee are now painted by the brush of avarice and stupidity.”

As for me, I would have probably gotten burned had I been there because I would have done whatever I could think to do. So help me I would. I learned long ago when the ox is in the ditch, or firewood is scattered in the road, you don’t ask questions until later.

When we don’t respond to one another’s plight, we will no longer live as brothers.