My week started off with me having a very strange experience that left me appalled at the nonchalant way some mothers take care of their children (if you can call them mothers at all), shocked by the audacity of abusers in our society, and absolutely disgusted with humanity in general, which, in my opinion, is not humane at all! So, here's what happened:
I went to the twins' pediatrician's office to drop off some papers to be filled out for their daycare. When I was walking out of the building, in the front row of the parking lot directly in front of me, a man and a woman were involved in an altercation. I didn't see any actually hitting, but the man was forcefully restraining the woman and not allowing her to leave the premises; the woman was yelling hysterically, calling the man by name, and telling him to get his hands off of her (of course, my language is a lot cleaner than hers was!) So, I'm watching all of this, and go to grab my cell phone, but of course, this is the one time in my life when I left it in the truck. When I passed them, I was staring hard at the man because, in my experience, most abusers will cower down if they think you aren't afraid of them and that you are going to intervene. Well, the man didn't notice my glares because he had his back turned to me, but the woman saw me, and she immediately started begging me to call the police. I motioned to her that my phone was in my truck, but that I was going to call them. So, as soon as I got to my truck, I called 911, and that's when the man noticed me. As soon as he saw me on the phone, he started leaving on foot. After he was gone, I got out of the truck, told the woman that the police were on their way, and asked her if there was anything I could do to help her. She asked me, "Can you watch my baby? I want to go find out where he went so I can tell the police when they get here." I looked into her car and saw a cute, chubby-cheeked toddler sitting in the front seat. When I looked back up, the woman was gone. THE WOMAN WAS GONE!! Do you understand the magnitude of what I just said? So, for the safety of this stranger's little boy and my own safety, as well, I got him out of her car and took him to my truck and locked the doors. For the next fifteen minutes until the police arrived, I watched my rearview mirror to make sure that the man didn't come back to harm the child or me for intervening. Keep in mind that the mother still has not returned. Two police cars finally arrive, and I get out of the truck to tell them what I saw. After ten more minutes, one of the police officers leaves to go locate the mother. Did you catch that? I've never laid eyes on the woman in my life, and here I am, half an hour after the altercation, still watching her son, which she should be guarding with her life rather than chasing down a man that she was trying to wrestle away from. Anyways, the officer returns with the mother a few minutes later, and they take my statement, yada, yada, yada. Almost an hour after I walked into the pediatrician's office merely to drop off some forms for the doctor to sign, I finally got to leave, but only after I gave the little boy my orange highlighter that he had been coloring with (there was no way he was going to part with it!) So, I don't think there was any aspect of what happened that didn't leave me unsettled. Here's what really irks me about this situation:
1) The audacity of the man. I mean, when did it become acceptable for a man to openly abuse a woman in broad daylight in the view of dozens of witnesses? My guess would be right around the same time it became acceptable for people not to intervene in situations like this, which brings me to my next point.
2) The nonchalant attitude of those around us. When I walked out of the building, there were at least three other people that were walking out at the same time as I was and there was two more people behind us. Do you know how many people had the decency to help this woman? None of them! What's happened to the world that people are incapable of feeling empathy for others and doing something as simple as dialing 911?
3) The woman herself. I wonder how many times her adorable little boy has spent any amount of time with strangers. I mean, I could have been a paroled pedophile; she didn't know! My truck was running; I could have kidnapped her son for all she knew! What the hell kind of mother would just hand her child over to a complete stranger and then disappear for half an hour? I could have been long gone by the time she returned, and I doubt that she was in the state of mind to even notice what color my truck was or what I looked like!
So, basically, this situation left me disgusted with mankind in general. Maybe the man and woman were exes or maybe they are currently in a relationship. Maybe she went back to get abused some more...I have no way of knowing whether she did or not. But, I can sleep good at night knowing that if that's the choice she wants to make, then at least, because I intervened to help her, she's alive to make that choice. Shame on all the rest of you that just got in your cars and went home. It must be nice not to have a conscience!
