Preserved Topic: Sad, very very sad. (Page 1 of 1)

Readers digest version of this goes:

After picking up a corsage she will wear that night for her graduation ceremonies a young girl/woman walking home takes a short-cut thru a ?park.? Making her way through the parking lot?of the park? she is struck from behind by what she believes is the extended right side mirror of a pickup truck. The driver perhaps not aware of what has occurred leaves.

The girl/young woman, after a time, manages to get to shaky legs and make her way to the public washroom in the park. Inside, she makes her way into a stall to check her wounds. She blacks out. Eight hours later, park staff on their shutdown procedure find her. Paramedics arrive? take her to hospital.

During the 8 hours she was unconscious on the floor of the public washroom at least one person opened the door to this particular stall and, as best the girl could remember, said something akin to: ??. Too much to drink huh??? Just sleep it off for a while.?

The girl/young woman believes others looked in and said nothing and, obviously did nothing.

Did ?they? do nothing because they didn?t want to get involved? or did they do nothing because the 18 year old female on the floor was a native, aboriginal, first nations, ? you know what I mean.

This is not just sad and pathetic because it happened at all? it?s very very sad to me? because it happened where I live.

Just cannot imagine walking away? if say that passed out person was a black Chinese jew dressed as a biker nun who rode in on a moped.

I?d day this is a very good example of ?profiling.?

Very very very sad?.

Spleen vented?. Thankq?

Oh? and obviously no graduation.
nj

I'd love to sympathize with you nojive but there is not enough information at all in your post. What happened to the woman? Since you allude that "there was no graduation" does that mean she died? You need to make it a lot clearer than that.

Also, the fact that she was found unconscious in a public washroom does suggest that she had passed out from drinking. There is no evidence there to suggest that she suffered a head injury at all, especially from a motor vehicle. The thing about concussions is that most of the damage is not readily apparent.

Also, there is nothing in your post to suggest that she was discriminated against because of her race at all. She was found unconscious, there were probably no signs of bodily injury so there was no cause to think of it as anything other than a slight incident.

The fact that people just looked in on her and walked away does not suggest that it was because of her race at all. She was in a public bathroom, in a stall you mentioned so I assume she was sitting on the toilet and probably still breathing because she regained consciousness a few times as you said, so what would suggest to a passerby that she needed medical attention?

As far as what you've posted, the only thing I can see is a tragic accident and some important information that was not there at the time. Maybe there's something deeper, but you have to give me a bit more to go on.



[This message has been edited by silence (edited 06-14-2001).]

threep comments:
"ok silence, work with this: a mid 30's white female is in there. do you think people would just ignore her too? just curious..."

'mid 30's' changes the scenario a large amount in my opinion though.

Ah, so now it's a question of age instead of race?

Now that's a whole different subject...

But I'll tell you one thing, I'd give you odds that she'd be ignored as well.

agreed


-It never hurts to always be right-

Well from my pov 'threep' nailed it. The essentials boiled down to an individual, unconcious on the floor of a public washroom. What more do you need to know before calling for help?

nj

NoJive, according to the post you made, she'd made it into a stall. Which implies that she was passed out sitting on the toilet, a common position for drunk people as I can readily attest. But you also say she was on the floor. There isn't much room in a restroom stall to lay on a floor, so your story has some conflicts.

Now if she were lying on the floor, then it would be a different story. if you could just clear up the matter that would help.

women can't make good sock puppets.

Did anybody ask her if she needed help? That's the first thing someone learns in First Aid, to ask. Doesn't matter who/what needs help. Readiness to help others means just that. I'm surprised the woman wasn't sexually assaulted. In that sense, she was lucky. Just my 2 bits.

wait a second....
by 'public washroom' you mean what exactly?....
a bathroom for both sexes?... or was it the female bathroom?
..need some more details.

taxon.. are you trolling? you keep making anti-feminist remarks..

WebShaman.. though it would seem the woman encountered no good samaritans, at least one person thought she was drunk and should be left to sleep it off.. we don't know what the others who saw her were thinking..

~velvetrose

clarify...

Womens public washroom. she was on floor. stall *walls* don't go to floor. easily seen on floor. fairly busy day in park...

nj

Well, then I'd definitely have to agree with you, NoJive. It's a really, really sad story. The question of why nobody offered to help is open to discussion, but the fact that she wasn't helped at all for a while is a sad symptom of society.

The truth is, how many of you would walk away as well? Again, I'd give you odds that the people who actually did realize she may have needed some help thought the next person was going to do it. If it's also a question of race, then the story really begins to take on some dark overtones.

In hindsight, it's easy to think that, "well, I would've done something", but when you're all alone and those really tough decisions are facing you, well, that's when you find out who you are.

As for the young lady, you never cleared up the matter of how the story ended. Did she pass away or did she just miss her graduation ceremonies? I, for one, would like to know.

Silence...

She survived. Out of hospital now but with some motor skill problems. Dr.'s *think* she should recover fully.

" If it's also a question of race, then the story really begins to take on some dark overtones."

Yup... that's how I saw it.


nj

I'd have to say the setting had a lot to do with her being passed by. Find someone lying unconscious along a sidewalk in the park, something's amiss. Find someone lying unconscious in a bathroom stall, he's probably just drunk or possibly homeless and sleeping.

If it occurred in a bar, it would be easy to notify the bartender and no big deal. In a park, though, there's usually no real authority figure nearby and any effort to do anything would have been a lot of trouble for a drunk.

Yes, the right thing to do would have been to find out if the person is all right. But, honestly, I would probably have assumed the woman was drunk, too.

I don't think this is a question of race or age, people just don't care anymore and don't want to get involved.

It's your God, they're your rules, YOU go to Hell.

Heh

I always find the idea of profiling to be an odd debate. We all bemoan the loss of liberties for all those minorities in the world (myself included) and we ... do ... nothing ... about ... it.

That's right, my friends, we talk about it on design boards.

But that's not really what I am saying right now. More important than even that is that (and let me bold this for importance) it's our own damn fault. That's right, we can't pawn off the guilt on anyone but ourselves! So we talk about it, lament the sadness of it all, and the move on to go to our nice homes in suburbia and dream the night away next to our families.

Mhm

So is it a case of race? Nah. Case of a society that doesn't care? Not even that. Close. It's about ourselves. It's about crying tears of sadness because you weren't there to set things right. You pity the world because it doesn't know any better.

Well, fuck the world. You have a problem with it, fix it. Non?

I dunno... I think Seneca has the most likely answer. People either don't want to or are afraid to get involved any more than they have to with people they don't know, particularly in such an 'iffy' situation.

It also depends on what her injuries were. If they weren't visibly serious (i.e., no blood spurting or gushing), the people who saw her may have assumed that she was simply intoxicated. Depending on the mindset and personal experiences of those who found her, that kind of situation might be common for themselves or those they know.

Of course, I could just be horribly naive. I am constantly amazed by Man's ability to judge other people to be better or worse (usually worse) based on broad generalizations (race, gender, etc. ad nauseum). As a comedian whose name I don't recall once said, "I don't understand why people bother hating other people based on their race, when there are so many reasons to dislike people on an individual basis..."

As a comedian whose name I don't recall once said, "I don't understand why people bother hating other people based on their race, when there are so many reasons to dislike people on an individual basis..."

Precisely

nj

Seems really simple to me: JUST ASK IF THE PERSON NEEDS HELP! It's not difficult, or hard, or anything. It's actually quite courteous. Most people react kindly to such an inquery. I've administered quite a lot of first-aid to people who needed it, and the asking seems to be the key. Not all people want to be helped. Of course, when the person is unconscious...then legally speaking (and that changes, from land to land) you better know what you're getting into. Known some really good first-aiders that legally got torn apart for helping someone.

Short story...

One day I was walking through the park, just got out of a big meeting and was looking forward to unwinding. Had to take a real big wiz, and started strolling toward the bathroom. When I got in I picked an empty stall and locked the door behind me. Dropped my drawers, layed the paper on the seat and sat down. Now while I was doing business I thought I heard a noise coming from another stall, but that's typical, just a little constipation I assume. I finished up, flushed the toilet and exited the stall. I then went to wash my hands and did happen to notice the last stall was occupied. No big deal, people come in to releave themselves all the time, it's a busy park after all. I dried my hands and left.

How do you know that didn't happen? You didn't mention if they were in the corner stall, in a big bathroom, or on the floor in front of the sink. There is just no way to say that society was a let down here. If she had blood spilling out of the back of her head, I'm sure someone would have done something (regardless of their race). But just another person in a stall, or another drunk passed out in the bathroom? There are too many people in the world for me to stop and ask each one of them if they want help! Have you ever walked through a city park? You would proabably have to ask 10 people if they needed help. My question is why were there no police checks in this park? That's pretty standard I beleive. Well, who knows, just not enough info, but I sure wouldn't blame society with such little evidence.




-It never hurts to always be right-