Cranky Rivka
Jun. 9th, 2004 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaOne of my fellow passengers collapsed on the bus today. I didn't see it happen. I looked up when other passengers started talking about it, and saw her slumped over in an unnatural position, sideways with her head on the seat beside her. She had a big brace on her leg, and held a cane in one limp hand. People in nearby seats spoke to her, then shook her. No response. She was definitely breathing, though.
The driver pulled over and called the paramedics. As soon as it became clear that we weren't going anywhere, a man sitting directly in front of the unconscious woman became impatient.
"She's all right," he called to the driver. "She's all right, sir."
She continued to slump, unmoving.
"She's just fine," he repeated, urging the driver to resume the route.
"Are you a doctor?" I asked, knowing that he wasn't.
"No." He didn't even sound hostile when he answered me - just pleased with himself.
"Then you don't know that she's fine," I said in my most quelling voice.
He looked away. And then he started up again: "She's full of drugs. Druggie bitch." He snatched her cane out of her unresisting hand and grinned. The woman sitting across from him snapped at him to put it back, which he did - unrepentantly. I don't think I was the only one who was grateful when he got off the bus to wait for the next one, shortly before the paramedics arrived.
What the hell makes a person act like that? For the sake of getting the bus moving again, he was prepared to lie about someone who might have been dying. I swear, sometimes I just about lose my faith in humanity.
The driver pulled over and called the paramedics. As soon as it became clear that we weren't going anywhere, a man sitting directly in front of the unconscious woman became impatient.
"She's all right," he called to the driver. "She's all right, sir."
She continued to slump, unmoving.
"She's just fine," he repeated, urging the driver to resume the route.
"Are you a doctor?" I asked, knowing that he wasn't.
"No." He didn't even sound hostile when he answered me - just pleased with himself.
"Then you don't know that she's fine," I said in my most quelling voice.
He looked away. And then he started up again: "She's full of drugs. Druggie bitch." He snatched her cane out of her unresisting hand and grinned. The woman sitting across from him snapped at him to put it back, which he did - unrepentantly. I don't think I was the only one who was grateful when he got off the bus to wait for the next one, shortly before the paramedics arrived.
What the hell makes a person act like that? For the sake of getting the bus moving again, he was prepared to lie about someone who might have been dying. I swear, sometimes I just about lose my faith in humanity.
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Date: 2004-06-09 10:35 am (UTC)Speculating on why one of the passengers responded so badly, Wired Ferret wrote:
>I think it must come down, at its base, to fear/anger. That is the >only emotion strong enough to override so much acculturation to be >civilized. At least I'd like to think so.
It would be nice to think everyone was strongly acculturated to be civilized, requiring a really strong motive to behave badly. But I don't believe it. Some people seem to be only faintly conditioned by the restraints I think of as civilized behavior, thinking of them in terms of profit or convenience or image.