What would you do if you saw a man laying on the sidewalk?

[Evergreen Emerald]

I did something I have condemned others for in the past.

I was walking in Seattle and passed a man laying on the sidewalk near a bus stop. I have seen that man before. He hangs around the bus stop and talks to people. He has friends that sometimes join him for a cigarette. His clothing is dirty, and he acts as if he has mental issues. I assumed he was homeless.

So, when I walked by him as he lay on the sidewalk, I thought once--but did not think twice. I thought it was odd that he was laying there. But, he is an odd guy. I saw that he was looking around and decided he must be napping, although it has been very cold in Seattle.

I just walked by and stood waiting with dozens of others for my bus--not more than 10-15 feet from him.

I looked around a few minutes later and saw a woman talking to him while she was on the phone. I then noticed that he was bleeding from a huge gash on the side of his head. The woman called 911 and an ambulance came and took him to the hospital.

I did nothing. I walked by and did not even ask if he was ok.

[Lionessa]

1. Ouch. I bet that hurts. Question is . . . what will you do next time?

[babylonsister]

2. I would hope I would call for help. Having

said that, you were familiar with him, were used to seeing him there, and didn't know he was bleeding. If you had known that, I imagine you would have done what the woman did.

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. Before this happened, I would have responded the same way

I scoff at people who don't stop to help. Of course I would be the one to stop and see if everything was ok.

[roguevalley]

37. this happened to me once in Anchorage. I saw a man laying in the grass alongside the road

in his underwear and no one was stopping. I turned around and called 911. They came and got him. You wonder what you will do. I am glad I did what I did. To this day I don't know if he was dead. It was really cold and he was laying there half naked. He looked dead to me.

[phasma ex machina]

3. The great thing about Christianity is that one can ask one's own self, "What would Jesus do?", then

act appropriately. I'm not condemning, nor saying I'm perfect. I only offer a tool for every day living.

[SidDithers]

9. So you would have magically healed him, turned water into wine, then gave him loaves and fishes?..nt

Sid

[lunatica]

13. Way to totally miss the point!

Ridiculing others for their spiritual beliefs must make you proud.

[Bragi]

15. I thought it was a perfectly valid response

The poster suggested in their comment -- perhaps inadvertently -- that there is something uniquely ethical and compassionate about people who share their particular belief in the Jesus myth.

I think the contrary point being made is that the sentiment of compassion and sense of ethics are inherent human qualities that are shared by non-believers, and by those who believe in the various religious mythologies, including those who self-identify with the Jesus cult.

So I think the response was spot on. I hope it makes the poster think twice in the future about making claims about the ethical primacy of their particular cult.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

28. Every major religion's main tenet is some version of "do unto others as you would have done unto you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Rule

I'm agnostic, but it's the moral code I try to live by.

[left coaster]

31. + 1,000!

I've come upon similar circumstances, more than once in my life. I am always one of the first to reach out and help. I am also a nurse, by profession. I only share these facts because I'd like it known that my sense of empathy is based on my own internal moral compass, and has nothing to do with any belief in an invisible sky daddy.

[Yo_Mama]

38. That's quite untrue

Christianity is a healing religion grafted onto the ethical structure of Judaism.

A lot of Christian doctrine addresses how to change - how to open oneself to wisdom. Therefore what the comment was suggesting was an appeal to a greater wisdom than one's own in cases of doubt. Christianity -the orthodox religion - has a lot about one's own flaws and the capacity of the Holy Spirit to assist us in overcoming them.

So, to translate that into non-Christianese, the comment said "I could have made the same mistake, and the way to avoid that type of mistake is this." It did not make any claim about Christians BEING better. Christianity is all about flawed human beings ACTING better by getting help to do so from an external source.

I know when I read the original post I was twitching with horror, thinking I could have made the same mistake. I think most people might have. It may seem strange to you, but the comment actually was a statement of commonality. Human beings are not all compassionate, and the best of us frequently fail in compassion.

You are free to reject the principle, but to describe that comment as a claim to superiority is a gross misunderstanding of it.

[Bragi]

45. Points noted for future ponderation /nt

[SidDithers]

21. If you don't want people to laugh at your beliefs...

don't believe such funny stuff.

Sid

[deutsey]

16. I suspect the person who posted this had something more like the "Good Samaritan" in mind

The "miracle" in that parable was that someone who would've been seen as an unclean, despised outsider by Jesus' audience did the decent thing when he found someone injured on the road while the so-called holy types didn't want to get involved.

[SidDithers]

17. And I submit Mitchell and Webb in response...

Sid

[deutsey]

20. That's actually pretty funny

I love stuff like that, particularly Life of Brian.

Still, the original context and point of the story told by Jesus (which challenges us to get our complacent asses out of the comfort zone) remains valid, especially in today's tuned out world.

[SidDithers]

22. I agree with you completely...

the OP is one that challenges us to do better.



Sid

[phasma ex machina]

36. +1 You perfectly understood my intent.

[Quantess]

18. That's pretty rude and insensitive, in this context.

I see your point, but it makes you look like an a-hole.

[SidDithers]

19. The context is that the poster dragged Jesus into the discussion...

as some moral compass for directing their actions in a situation like the one described in the OP.

Why not just help the man because it's the right thing to do? Why the fuck would you have to ask yourself "Hmmmm, that man is lying there bleeding on the street. Would Jesus go and help him, or would Jesus bugger off to the mall, 'cause he needs to get his bloody Christmas shopping done?"

Seems to me, that helping because it's the right thing to do, and not because it's what Jesus would have wanted to you to do, is the nobler course of action. It shows that you have a free-thinking mind and are not bound by a set of subjectively interpreted rules derived from thousand year-old myths.

Sid

[Quantess]

25. I agree with THAT completely!

Too bad you didn't write that to begin with! It's just that your initial reply to the christian upthread sounded a-holish and overly sarcastic, given the context of the discussion.

I am non-religious, but I kind of cringe when fellow agnostics/atheists act like jerks to a christian who is trying to be nice. Especially since there is so much about christians that is decidedly not-nice.

Anyway, that's about all I have to say. Have a good holiday season!

[SidDithers]

26. Yeah, sometimes I can be ... abrasive...

Guess I've seen the whole WWJD schtick too often.

Have a great holiday season yourself

Sid

[Yo_Mama]

39. The original poster did not know the man was bleeding

The original poster did not see the wound. The original poster would not have left the person lying there without out help if the original poster knew of his real situation.

[phasma ex machina]

34. It's a TOOL Sid, no magic needed. You see, it's only too easy for me to sell myself on minding my

business when confronted with public violence and other equally upsetting situations. Why, it's downright virtuous to NOT to stick one's nose into other people's business.

[ScreamingMeemie]

44. I actually found that to be one of the crappy things about it when I was a practicer.

Now, I simply ask myself,"What would Leonard do?" and get the same result.


***Leonard was my husband, an honest to goodness, in the flesh good person to emulate.

[trusty elf]

5. Similar story...

Recently, in Paris, near the Palais Garnier, I saw a man lying facedown on the sidewalk next to his dog, crying miserably. I passed by, then lingered to observe other people's reactions. I did nothing to help him. It haunted me for days.

[hlthe2b]

6. I've encountered this....I check to see if they appear in imminent distress

(i.e., if they are breathing or showing signs of respiratory distress). If not, I will typically contact/ask the police to check on them, reminding them that they could be diabetic and probably would not want to automatically assume them to be merely drunk...

If they were in distress, I'd hope that I would call 911 and if at all possible assist directly.... But, I understand that those without medical or even general cpr training are going to draw the line a bit finer and won't feel comfortable distinguishing between "acute distress" and probable inebriation. If in doubt, though, alerting the police to check on them seems appropriate.

[treestar]

7. Are you male or female and how strong?

Since you did not notice the blood, don't beat yourself up. It could have been someone who was going to take advantage.

[SidDithers]

8. "Double check my route, because I seem to be walking in circles"...

Old, bad joke.

Sid

[Brickbat]

10. When confronted with unusual situations in front of other people, the vast majority of us will do

little or nothing.

[phasma ex machina]

33. Asking myself "What would Jesus do?" gives me the courage to actually DO something besides avert my

eyes and walk faster.

[EFerrari]

11. I found a man wandering dazed in my neighborhood once.

He was older and disheveled and possibly homeless. I couldn't tell if he was dazed from too much sun or from liquor or if there was something else going on. I made him sit down in the shade and I called 911. When the police came, they were pissed at me for bothering them or something. They were fixing to arrest him until they realized that I was not going to just go away until I saw him transported to a medical facility. Then they got more pissed. For a minute I was afraid they would cuff me.

[Abin Sur]

12. It depends on where he is.

If I happened to be in an area where homeless people on the street seemed, well, "normal", part of the scenery as it were, I would ignore him...but I'm almost never in such a place.

If, on the other hand, he was where I live (a mountain community west of Denver) I would see if he was ok and call 911 if he wasn't.

[Quantess]

14. A homeless man was beaten, caught on video:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10172034

Not implying anything except, I wonder how he got a gash to his head?

[Ikonoklast]

23. It just shows that you are only human, and not some kind of saint.

People like to think that they would be the 'Good Samaritan' in a situation like that, but in all reality, unless the person was in visible physical distress, most people would assume he was just passed out, dead drunk.

When a much younger man, I worked in an area of town that was considered the Skid Row; shops that sold fortified wine, run-down transient hotels, a down-and-outer on every corner, on every stoop...

If I gave some of the guys a quarter, they were thankful, that was a lot of money to a kid making $1.10 an hour, even more to a guy that could buy a pint of Wild Irish Rose for $1.99...and some of them would threaten to kill you if you didn't, but I knew they had nothing but empty threats.

Some of those guys were in such bad shape they had trouble standing up unaided, let alone doing anything else physically.

If I had stopped every time I saw a man lying face-down on the sidewalk, I couldn't have walked from where I parked my car to the front door of my job without stopping.

It was an every day occurence, and by that I mean, every single day.

At first, I was appalled at the human wreckage, but after a while, you either ignore that which you have little or no control over, or beat yourself up, every. single. day you witnessed it.

[w8liftinglady]

24. Only because I'm a nurse...

I will be the first to admit... things aren't what they seem sometimes.it would be a difficult choice for anyone to make...especially under certain circumstances.You are kind...absolve yourself from guilt.

[HopeHoops]

27. Probably lie down next to him to see what he was staring at...

...and see how many others joined us out of curiosity.

No, seriously, I'd check on him. Society has become rather numb. I read recently (on DU in fact) about a man who died in a Target and other shoppers walked around or stepped over him as he was taking his last breaths.

[GliderGuider]

29. Thank you. It takes a lot of courage to post something like this. n/t

[pipi_k]

30. I suppose if I had gotten used

to seeing him on the sidewalk, I probably would have walked by myself.

Then, as you did, feel terrible when someone else stopped and it turned out he was bleeding.

I think most of us have moments that haunt us...things we didn't do that we could have.

About two months ago Mr Pipi and I were doing our usual Sunday breakfast at this tiny restaurant in town...on a main State highway. In walked a woman, in her late 70s, maybe, asking how she could back to Syracuse, NY.

WTF????

I am in Western Mass, about +/- 50 miles to the east of Albany, NY.

This poor woman wants to get to Syracuse???

Well, the owner, who is also in his 70s, is trying to explain to the woman how to take the main road to the turnpike which will get her going in the right direction, anyway. No dice. She looked terribly puzzled. She walked out, got in her car, then promptly forgot the directions she had been given and headed up a side street, turned around, and was flagged down by the restaurant owner who told her to how to get back out on the main road.

After it was over, I felt awful...like, someone...myself...should have asked her for a family member's phone number to call. Or maybe even call the police to come down and see what they could do. Instead of turning this poor woman out to more than likely get lost again.

It haunted me for days.

[Yo_Mama]

40. Something that's bothered me for ever.

When I was pretty young, I was driving early to work once. This (because I am old) was before the era of cell phones. When I was about to get on the interstate, I saw a car with a man in it pulled over by the exit.

I still don't know whether he had stopped for a rest or had been taken ill. I was too stupid/gutless to turn around on the interstate and come back and check. That man could have died because I passed by. I looked at the papers for several days and didn't see anything about a death, but I really don't know what happened. He didn't appear to be reading anything - he was just sort of leaning back on the seat. Maybe he pulled off to take a nap, but it just looked odd.

Because I'll never know if I let a fellow human down that day, now I stop and check. If there's no other purpose to a thing like this, the worry and guilt does protect us from making a similar mistake again in the future.

[emilyg]

32. Call for help.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. ..

[rustydog]

41. One evening North of Seattle in Everett

My wife and I were returning home from dining out and, driving a few blocks past Comcast Arena saw a male laying face down on the sidewalk on a bridge we were crossing.
I made my wife turn around, stop with emerrgency flashers on and I walked up to and shook the gentleman. Turned out he was drunker than a skunk.
He woke long enough to say a friend was supposed to be coming for him. At that moment, his friend showed up. We left.

[joshcryer]

42. Thanks for this story.

[aletier_v]

43. I see this every week in downtown Seattle.

I keep walking.

I have my own life to live.