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On The Road to Damascus
Oct. 14th, 2011 05:01 pmRight now our staff are in two locations with most of them being in a new offices in the same building as the University Police. The building sits at a busy intersection with a gas station is across the street.
Yesterday, from a 2nd story window one of them observed a man lying face down on that strip of scruff that runs between the sidewalk and the curb. He had on sweats and a backpack so he could have been a student, he could have been one of the men who depended on the local soup kitchen. He may have been a worker from the nearby dining hall or just some unfortunate passing through town. My colleagues called 911 and watched in grim horror as cars passed, the attendants continued to pump gas and 2 people walked by him on the sidewalk.
After several minutes, a car approached the intersection and stopped. a woman jumped out and began CPR on the man. Soon she was joined by another man and soon after an ambulance. Despite their efforts they were not able to resuscitate the man he died. They put him in the ambulance while the police went through his backpack, presumably looking for some kind ID. No one was sure how long he lay there or how long he had been dead.
Everyone watching from the office window was shaken up, one of the women became so distraught that her husband had to come pick her up from work.
We will all die one day (okay, maybe a few of you will drink some kind of magic potion or something but...) and for me the upsetting thing about this is not that someone died, or even that it was a seemingly young person who died. What up upsets me is that someone's son (and possibly brother, father, husband, friend, etc) lay on the ground like a discarded gum wrapper and so many people just ignored him.
My heart hurts for this man; my heart hurts for anyone who loved him. In death, may he be afforded the dignity he was stripped of as he lay dying.
I pray that if anyone reading this is every completely at the mercy of strangers, they meet that woman in the car and not the men pumping gas. I pray that if I am ever faced with that situation I will not hesitate to choose to be that woman.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they....beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, ... passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Luke 10:25-37
" And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to ..., lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
Martin Luther King, Jr
April 3, 1968
Yesterday, from a 2nd story window one of them observed a man lying face down on that strip of scruff that runs between the sidewalk and the curb. He had on sweats and a backpack so he could have been a student, he could have been one of the men who depended on the local soup kitchen. He may have been a worker from the nearby dining hall or just some unfortunate passing through town. My colleagues called 911 and watched in grim horror as cars passed, the attendants continued to pump gas and 2 people walked by him on the sidewalk.
After several minutes, a car approached the intersection and stopped. a woman jumped out and began CPR on the man. Soon she was joined by another man and soon after an ambulance. Despite their efforts they were not able to resuscitate the man he died. They put him in the ambulance while the police went through his backpack, presumably looking for some kind ID. No one was sure how long he lay there or how long he had been dead.
Everyone watching from the office window was shaken up, one of the women became so distraught that her husband had to come pick her up from work.
We will all die one day (okay, maybe a few of you will drink some kind of magic potion or something but...) and for me the upsetting thing about this is not that someone died, or even that it was a seemingly young person who died. What up upsets me is that someone's son (and possibly brother, father, husband, friend, etc) lay on the ground like a discarded gum wrapper and so many people just ignored him.
My heart hurts for this man; my heart hurts for anyone who loved him. In death, may he be afforded the dignity he was stripped of as he lay dying.
I pray that if anyone reading this is every completely at the mercy of strangers, they meet that woman in the car and not the men pumping gas. I pray that if I am ever faced with that situation I will not hesitate to choose to be that woman.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they....beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, ... passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Luke 10:25-37
" And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to ..., lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
Martin Luther King, Jr
April 3, 1968
