Sick Pastor left outside airport for 3 days, no one noticed

[shesulsa]

But what an incredible analogy which we may use to benchmark our general social behavior! As upnorth said - HOW MANY PEOPLE WALKED RIGHT PAST HIM? THEY WEREN'T ALL AIRPORT SECURITY OR SKYCAPS!!

In fact, most of the people who walked right past that man were people arriving to catch a plane or being picked up after a flight.

People like you and me.

 

[MA-Caver]

These are damn fine questions - and you might want to remember what I went through two years ago with my mom. She was reported missing, the police called all the hospitals in the area, ONE OF WHICH SHE WAS IN, and the hospital said she wasn't there.

We have to remember some very important things in our lifewalk as caring people on this planet:

1. Thousands of people hit that sidewalk daily and some are in wheelchairs. When people are looking around paying attention to many, many things it might be easy to think it's just another person in a chair waiting for a pickup. Sounds weak and it is ... the security implications are enormous.

2. If you walked up to the airport in a hurry for your flight and saw a disheveled man reeking of urine and feces looking like he's 3 sheets to the wind in a wheelchair, would you stop and check on the situation? or would you try to make your flight? Honest answer, now. I can see where someone might think it's a homeless person not worthy of notice, not their problem or whatever. How many people reeking of swill have you passed by and not checked on?

3. Would the consideration for your personal safety preclude you from doing so? and if so, exactly how different from what happened to this man do you deem that answer?

This is a failure in security as well as humanitarianism. But let's not forget ourselves, shall we?

I will pray for this man and his family - please excuse the devil's advocacy.

Yes, I remember your thread about your mum. :asian:
As far as answering (honestly) your questions
1. Yes of course it's easy and far more so the shabbier the person looks.
2. would I have walked past this smelly (likely sleeping) guy in a wheelchair because I have about 20 minutes to catch my flight (knowing I have to go through security, stand in lines... etc. etc.)? It depends, I see (and don't see) people all the time in the fleeting glance, corner of my eye. I register them and then file away. But honestly in that momentary register I will be looking for a first assessment of anything possibly not-quite-right. Example: Working as a (foot) messenger in Dallas and having a rush delivery in my hands I glanced at a homeless guy sitting on the ground just outside an narrow alley between two office buildings and as I entered the building my mind caught up and registered him sitting in a dark pool of liquid. While waiting for the elevator I mentally "clicked" the picture in my head again then realized that it was not quite-just-right and managed to get the building's security long enough to tell them that there's a possible injured person outside their building.... then caught my elevator and did my job as always. Coming back out (with yet another rush delivery) I saw an ambulance approaching up the street.
Would I have done for this guy in such a hurry? I honestly don't know, but for me ok? For me, if my sense of wrongness about what I see is sending up red-flags like referees during a fist-fight in a football game I'm gonna let someone in authority know, flight be damned.
I guess I'd want/hope the same would be done for me by someone.
3. (see above) I trust in my own sense of street awareness will come in to play and let me know if there's a possiblity of a dangerous situation... but at an airport? Hmm, good one... again, honestly I don't know or am not 100% sure there are a lot of "it depends" going on.

But what an incredible analogy which we may use to benchmark our general social behavior! As upnorth said - HOW MANY PEOPLE WALKED RIGHT PAST HIM? THEY WEREN'T ALL AIRPORT SECURITY OR SKYCAPS!!

In fact, most of the people who walked right past that man were people arriving to catch a plane or being picked up after a flight.

People like you and me.

People like you and me indeed. And I wonder too if we are desensitizing ourselves to human suffering? We see so much of it and we (here on MT) talk about it quite a bit. Are we getting tired of it? Or are we in that mode of ... "like to do something but... what?" or "like to do something to help out but I've got my own problems right now." That's normal, that's universal, because how can we take care of others if we're not taking care of ourselves.
But the real question is for those who are taking care of themselves quite well all things considered... was it wishful thinking or one of those "round-tu-its?" that we often find ourselves in. Mind you I'm just as guilty, even when things are going well for me. But I still try to help out whenever/where-ever I can. I think most of us here do.

But the question still remains... would we, being in a hurry and our minds 1000 miles away (to where-ever we're going or been) have noticed that poor old man sitting alone and not looking in the best of shape in a place where nobody should be alone and not looking in the best of shape.

As far as the airport hiring private security? That's another study topic right there by itself.

 

[MJS]

1. Thousands of people hit that sidewalk daily and some are in wheelchairs. When people are looking around paying attention to many, many things it might be easy to think it's just another person in a chair waiting for a pickup. Sounds weak and it is ... the security implications are enormous.

Agreed. And chances are, I would've assumed the same. You'd think though, that considering this is an airport, especially with the supposed security, someone would've noticed this guy sitting for as long as he was. I'd bet dollars to donuts if this were a black duffle bag sitting alone on the sidewalk, the bomb squad would be there. Nobody sees a man in a wheel chair, but someone would notice that bag.

2. If you walked up to the airport in a hurry for your flight and saw a disheveled man reeking of urine and feces looking like he's 3 sheets to the wind in a wheelchair, would you stop and check on the situation? or would you try to make your flight? Honest answer, now. I can see where someone might think it's a homeless person not worthy of notice, not their problem or whatever. How many people reeking of swill have you passed by and not checked on?

I'd make my flight. I most likely would've thought he was waiting to be picked up. I can understand the public, or a portion of them, not noticing, but what about the security? Some airports have police officers or in the case of the airport here in CT, State Troopers.

 

[grydth]

I don't agree with the bulk of what he was trying to say, but in some senses, he did have a point. In regards to this conversation, if people can walk by this man for so long without even asking a question, what does that say about the state of humanity? Wouldn't they all share a little peice of that burden? How many other areas of our lives to we carry little burdens like this and dispassionately turn away, go about our bussiness and/or make terrible things happen?

I've been to the holocaust museum. There's alot of truth there that people don't want to see. Truth in how we act. Truth in what we have in common. I don't think it has to be that way.

Okay, now tossing away the needless reference to ex=Professor Churchill... let's see if on your own you haven't made the best point of the entire discussion....

What if we do not want to travel any further down this road of the distressed being left to die in the streets? We've known at least since the infamous Kitty Genovese murder in 1964 that there was an increasing number of situations where people would do absolutely nothing to assist another human being.... even one in mortal peril.

With savage enemies from without and deep divisions within (far more hateful than any exchanges here) to me the future does not appear favorable. Frankly, I envision a future much like the videos of Baghdad... where the victims of appalling violence become almost part of the landscape and are stepped over.

Perhaps not casting it as a blame or "burden".... but it occurs to me, upnorthkyosa, that you may have hit upon our only possible salvation as a society.

It is clear that government alone can not or will not save us.

But... if we take your suggestion, and as individuals, accept a personal responsibility to act.... then, maybe, we will have a chance. Perhaps we need to not only train in our various arts, but to accept and apply some of he underlying values those ancients had. We can not always take heroic action.... but we each could take some meaningful action... be the one to ask that question... call 911.... offer first aid.... fight back.

We've collectively done well absorbing the techniques of the MA of the world... can we go farther, and as citizens apply the core values and accept the responsibility as citizens? I would believe some already do...

 

[Mr. E]

I do not think the general public really share much of the blame in not noticing this guy. Not in this specific case. Consider the following three points.

First, it was an airport. And at an airport it is reasonable to assume that there are people looking out for this type of thing. If it had been on a bus stop bench in the middle of the city it might be another matter.

Second, the guy was in a wheelchair. Whenever I see someone in one, I assume that there is someone who put them in it, rolled them out and in short, took responsibility for them.

Third and last, most people did not see this guy over the course of three days. If someone walked into a store and noticed this guy and then noticed he was still there when they walked out three hours later, then I think they would be remiss in not doing something. But most of the people walking past him to get into the building would be on a flight and not back for several days. People walking out of the building would see him on the way to their vehicle and never see him again. People do not generally walk into the terminal to pick people up anymore, unless it is international, because you can't get to the gates without a boarding pass.

If this guy was lying bleeding in the street, walking by under any time frame would be criminal. But when you think that outside of security and employees most people would only see this guy for a minute or two and combine it with the location and the wheelchair, it is only natural that they would assume that there was no problem because someone else had taken responsibility for it.

 

[grydth]

Certain occupations teach at the outset to never "assume" anything.

I believe we as a society would be better served if, instead of assessing collective "blame", more of us would accept and assert individual responsibility.

 

[Makalakumu]

I agree. It's as simple as owning up to the duty we owe each other as human beings. People need to be taught that this sort of thing is okay instead of plugging into their gameboys, Ipods, cellphones, internet, etc and ignoring what really needs to be addressed.

 

[Mr. E]

But what an incredible analogy which we may use to benchmark our general social behavior! As upnorth said - HOW MANY PEOPLE WALKED RIGHT PAST HIM? THEY WEREN'T ALL AIRPORT SECURITY OR SKYCAPS!!

In fact, most of the people who walked right past that man were people arriving to catch a plane or being picked up after a flight.

People like you and me.

The more I read this over, the more it makes me think.

But really, what else would you have done? You just don't think that someone would put someone in a wheelchair and then abandon him in the Florida summer. It is unthinkable, so people don't think of it as a possibilty.

You would think that whoever put him there had stepped away to bring around a car or make a phone call or something. That is, if you even noticed him.

This guy does not seem to have yelled for help or made himself known. If he wet himself (we don't know for sure), the fact that he was 72 years old and in a wheelchair might have explained that away. And if he did wet himself, some people would avoid trying to notice him not for fear of getting involved, but of embarrasing an old man with a lack of bladder control. I know I try not to stare at people that have embarrasing things happen to them.

And with all the people in the area, how would we know that not even a single one of them was the person's attendent? For much of that time, he probably looked like a guy taking a nap.

What really would cause us to even think that there was a problem? Why would we suspect that someone was not taking care of him in an airport after someone put him in a wheelchair? Most people only saw him long enough to get in or off a taxi (he was found near a taxi stop.) No traveler would notice that he had been there for more than ten minutes.

I will be quite honest in saying that if I saw someone sleeping in a wheelchair in an airport I would not assume there was anything wrong. And I probably would do nothing like wake up an old man in a wheelchair from his nap to see if there was anything wrong. To be honest, I would let someone at the airport know my concerns before I bothered someone's nap. But if 100 people reported him to 100 different airline employees, who would connect the dots? And I doubt any of those employees would now come forward to say, "oh yeah- someone told me there was a guy in a wheelchair out there, but I ignored them."

I have tried to put myself in the shoes of the typical person that might have walked past him. Unless he was moaning, screaming or begging for help- I don't see how I can point any fingers at anyone for not noticing him.

This is a case of people not observing things and not thinking things through. I don't think it is a case of a lack of compassion. People just never noticed him. And if they did, the natural assumption was that someone was taking care of him. The idea of someone dropping this guy off in the summer heat and walking away is so inhuman that it is outside of the things I would suspect. So why should I blame anyone else for not suspecting that he had no one taking care of him?

 

[grydth]

Now FOX News Website has a story up of at least 10 apartment building residents in St Paul, Minnesota ignoring a woman being beaten and sexually assaulted for over an hour.

Apparently one resident looked out their door 3 times, another actually walked up and looked, and a third had their door knocked on by the victim begging for help. None of them seem to have done anything to help.

Despite the evidence, the man charged claims he was just trying to help the victim....:angel: