I had a rough evening last night and have been in a bit of a state of shock actually, but as the thoughts have been racing through my mind these last 7 hours I needed to put them into words.
It was a beautiful, warm summer night in Toronto. I got to the rooftop patio early and chose the only remaining table off to the side… no view of the skyline. As luck would have it (and this becomes key later) a spot opened up right on the railing and I had a view of the skyline and the intersection below. My friend arrived shortly after and we were chatting and enjoying drinks.. Life was good. Fun was being had… it was a great Friday night.
As it happens, every once in a while I would glance out over the street… this time I glanced and saw a dog dash across the street through traffic. My first thought was for the dogs safety… Then I blinked and saw the guy lying motionless in the middle of the road and an SUV stopped up on the median. The guy wasn’t moving.
At this point everyone on the patio and in the street was aware of what happened to that poor guy. I did the only thing I could think of and called 911 immediately. I spoke to both the paramedic dispatcher and the police dispatcher. I don’t really remember the conversation, truth be told, I was drunk and can’t believe I was coherent while telling the cops what happened and what the state of the guy on the ground was. My friend made a comment that I sounded like I was a dispatcher myself by the no nonsense information that I quickly provided. I guess I just went into crisis mode and reacted… something that I thought everybody would do if in a similar situation. The people on the ground (in cars and on the sidewalk) immediately ran over to the guy to see if they could help which was a wonderful thing to see humanity do. While I was talking to them they kept asking me if the guy had moved yet. I was staring at the scene the whole time and the guy never moved.
The fire truck was there in a minute… at most two. The Ambulance was right on their tail and the police followed 20 seconds later. Unfortunately I don’t think the guy made it. He never moved and when they loaded him into the back of the ambulance I saw them put a sheet over him. Then they waited for their supervisor to show up. Not really the type of thing you would expect if the guy needed to be rushed to the hospital.
That was a tough pill to swallow. I knew he was gone when I was first on the phone with 911. It was the first death I have seen in real life. How do you go back to normal when a life was lost in the blink on an eye? I can only imagine what the police see every day… that is not a job to be envied, but one to be grateful that someone is willing to perform to serve the greater good. I can only imagine what those in NYC, Madrid, London, etc. etc. went through when they were bombed and terrorized. The response times there were excellent as well.
I stayed on the patio in case the cops needed me and I ended up going downstairs to talk to them when they called. Unfortunately all I really saw was the dog and the direction he/ she took off in. I couldn’t believe it that the cop actually wanted to know where the dog went. He said they were looking for it and wanted to know which way it went. I didn’t process that until later when I was back upstairs and a waiter came running up to tell us they had found the dog…. I looked across the street and there was the pup indeed. That meant a lot to me at that moment. It meant a lot that this poor scared dog was okay (it’s a really busy section of town with cars everywhere and that dog was moving when it took off). It meant a lot that the Toronto Police even cared about the dog when they were dealing with the tragedy of a human being losing his life and a crime scene investigation. It made me happy in a time of shock to know that we have police who care about life in general… and I thank them for it. I also thank the firefighters who were first on the scene to administer CPR. And the paramedics who were right behind them. The response time was incredible. No more than 3 minutes passed from the time of the accident and my 911 call (I called about 30-40 seconds after it happened) to when they were on the scene. If that guy lived it is because of their stupendous response time. I am so grateful to them.
After all this happened and they were still taping up the scene and doing the forensics my friend and I started talking about how great the response time was… and then it hit me.
What if I lived in Baghdad? This would not be something that you would probably even call 911 about… who would show up if you were outside the Green Zone? Would the response time (if they came at all) be minutes or hours?
Perspective hit me.
I am still in shock yet Iraqi’s and other HUMAN BEINGS around the world live with far worse horrors every day of their lives. Instead of being run over by a car they could be blown up by a car bomb or shot by a sniper or raped by paramilitary troops burning their village. Who weeps for them? How they continue to live ‘normal’ lives at all is a miracle. How atrocious that countries like the US and UK can inflict this kind of horror on others in the name of bringing them freedom. Freedom is being free to live, not just free to die. How disgusting that children are dying in Niger and Sudan and yet we still do nothing. Those of us and our countries who have so much do next to nothing to help our fellow inhabitants of this planet live in peace and without fear.
Never again in my name. Never again. I will speak up. I will add my voice to the others out there seeking to bring sanity to the world.
Life is precious and no one is expendable.
I wish you and yours all the best today… go hug someone you love and then get busy continuing to add your voice and heart to this planet and all creatures in it.
It can all be over in the blink of an eye. Don’t waste it.
Oh, and fuck the neocons and imperialists all over the world. You guys deserve all that’s coming to you in the ‘hereafter’ you keep preaching to me about.
