The End of the World

I haven't blogged in months here, as I have been extremely busy working on my bachelor's degree. But, I have a moment now, and I wanted to discuss something that I heard on talk radio last night on my way home from work. I heard a story of a woman in Kansas who was stabbed in a convenience store. It wasn't the stabbing that shocked me, it was the story behind it.

This woman walked into a convenience store and there were other people in the store with her. About four or so, including the clerk. At some point, another woman comes into the store, stabs the first woman and leaves. The woman who was stabbed falls to the floor, and is lying there bleeding to death. Remember, there are other people in the store. What did these other people do? This was all caught on the security camera, by the way.

One of them kept shopping. Merely glanced at the wounded woman, and went about their business.

One of them waited a FULL two minutes before deciding to call 911.

One of them walked up to the woman, took a picture of her with her cell phone, stepped over the stabbing victim, and walked out of the store.

And no word on what the clerk did (or didn't do, as the case may be).

Is this not the most appaling thing you have heard of recently? There were people in the stoor, and not one of them took any sort of action. And the most deplorable person, in my mind, is the sick, mentally twisted person who walked up to the stabbing victim and took a picture of her with her phone. How absolutely degrading and indecent is that?

The topic on the radio was whether or not you, if in the same store, would have done anything? Has our society become so completely numbed to violence that we will no longer take any action when we see an act of violence? Or is it that we now have such little regard for our fellow human beings that we will continue shopping for Ho-Hos and diet soda while someone lies on the cold, dirty floor of a convenience store bleeding to death? The radio host said that he couldn't say with certainty whether or not he would have actually done anything other than call 911 immediately. He cited the fact that there is such a concern now about germs and touching blood due to diseases such as A.I.D.S. that people may be wary to help someone in need out. Is this true? Do many people have the idea that it's 'not my fight to fight?' Like, it's none of my business?

What would I have done in that situation? I too, at the very least, would have called 911. Absolutely. I wouldn't have waited the two minutes like the person in the convenience store, however. Would I have rendered any sort of aid to the dying woman? That I don't know. I would like to think that I would have done what I could. I am not trained in first aid, and while I have seen CPR performed, I have never actually done it. I know that you need to apply pressure to a wound to stop the bleeding. I think I would have done that, and if I didn't have it in me, I would, at the very least, have tried to give some comfort to the woman until professional help arrived.

I actually had a situation like this, though not so severe, where I was in a club, and a man got hit by a woman in the head with a glass, and was bleeding severely, and no one helped him at all. He was lying in his blood, on the floor, and even the management was ignoring his pleas for help. I, along with another friend, ended up caring for this man, and taking him to the emergency room ourselves, in my car. I had his blood all over me, and not once while I was helping him did I think about what I might contract from him. All I could think about was that this man needed some help. He was hurt. I didn't know him from Adam, hadn't seen him before the incident nor since. I am curious to know what others, honestly, would have done in that situation. Would you have touched the stabbing victim? Called 911? Continued shopping? Snap a picture to post on MySpace?

By the way...the woman ended up dying on the way to the hospital. It was said that had 911 been called immediately, she probably would have survived. Two minutes, when you are bleeding to death, is an eternity.

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