This morning as I was on my way into work, I came upon a sight that has left me shaken all day. A young man, 17 years old, was laying on the side of the road. About him were four to five people, all looking very upset. Something in my heart said there was something horribly wrong so I turned the car around and went back.
Sure enough, something was wrong. The young man had been the victim of a hit and run accident. He was crossing the street when a carless driver struck him with their car. The young man was flung from the car and to the curb, after which the party had sped away. Shortly after I had arrived, the police and then the EMTs arrived. I offered my meager first aid kit and what every effort I could take to help.
In the end, I spent my time comforting this young man. As distressing the sight of his obviously broken leg and his bleeding from what appeared to be mild to moderate head trauma (including but most likely not limited to a broken noes) was... I found myself even more disturbed that this poor young man felt that this accident was his fault. He looked at me like a three year old does when in pain, seeking comfort and some magical ease of their suffering. Raw, naked fear shone in his face.
I knelt by him, smoothing the hair where his head wasn't injured. I quietly told him what was going to happen and that he would be all right. I assured him that it was most certianly not his fault. As the people about me worked to get him physically ready for the help he needed and to contact his family, I did my best to soothe the terror out of his eyes.
Thinking of it now even makes me want to weep. When I was assured that he was safely on his way to the hospital and the police officer on the scene told me that I was not needed any longer, I left to finish my trip to work. It was a meager 1 block away. When I got there, I was 15 min late. When I saw the young man laying on the side of the road, I was on track to be 10 min early. As I got into work, I heard the children laughing and playing.
Visions of these children laying in the street with people just looking at them as they were quite possibly bleeding to death assailed me. I sat down and wept for a solid 20 min. Even now my eyes itch and I can feel the burgeoning twinge of tears. While there was deep anger, if not rage at the casual inhumanity of such an action as leaving another to die inthe street after you hit them, I felt a greater sense of ... anguish.
I feel a horrid pain in the core of my heart. How can a person be so sadistic.. so thoughtless... so cruel to potentially commit vehicular homicide? This is a frightening and all to common occurance. Some of it is due to people just having poor skills as drivers. Those are the horribly tragic incidences. Some of it is due to gross negligence. I am certian that a signifigant portion of the accidents are due to some combination.
I can't help but feel heart broken and wounded. So many people injured from such thoughtlessness. And then more often then not, left to lay in their pain and terror alone. At the mercy of the elements and the people about them. And so frighteningly many people just would stare at the event, not lift a single finger to help that suffering soul. May God have mercy on those people and help me to be charitable and compassionate to them, even help me to forgive their blindness.
God... why? Why must so many people be brought to the edge of death by sheer laziness, gross negligance, and blind stupidity? I have this horrible sight that I witnessed today in such stark odds to my inheirant belief that people are fundamentally good. Even now I still hold that belief.
Am I a fool for this in the face of such blatant evidence of ... evil?
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