What has become of this world? @ ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

What has become of this world? Now we are punishing people for being good Samaritans? Two Sprint workers were fired last week for chasing down a shoplifter who stole items from an Apple store in Denver's Cherry Creek Mall. They were approached by the Mall’s security guard, out of breath and distraught, to help him capture the shoplifter. These two Sprint workers would never realize that the outcome of being good Samaritans is getting fired. Where is the morality here? So we are now punishing people for doing a good deed. The company’s rationale is the safety of the employees. But the real reason was to rid off any liability that the company may face in the event that a lawsuit is brought by injured employees and shoplifters. In Texas, a shoplifter is suing Wal-Mart for his injury inflicted by its workers during the pursuit. There were other cases where the shoplifters or their families were suing Wal-Mart for the death and injury from the pursuit by its workers. These may be extreme cases that pushed the retail companies to incorporate in their employee handbooks the rules of pursuing shoplifters and its consequences. Still I feel somehow distraught at where this is leading to and how the world will turn out, more indifferent people, more cold-heartedness.

So, are we supposed to watch someone bleeding to death when we went by a murder scene, pretending nothing has happened? Are we supposed to watch a rape carrying on and walk away quickly without notifying the police or giving a helping hand within our ability or at least scaring the rapists away? Are we supposed to breed the crimes for doing nothing?

This happened to my mom about two years ago. I still could not believe the people in Taipei would act so cold-hearted against an old lady asking for help to send her to the hospital. Just think. What would you do if this happens to your love ones?

My mom was walking in a corridor at 10am on one Monday morning, after exiting a bank from opening her credit card account. A robber might have noticed her when she walked into the bank and waited behind a closed door with staircases leading to the apartments. The stores were still closed at this time since it was not 11am yet. The robber ran out of the door as she approached and tried to grab her handbag. My mom used to wrap her handbag around her wrist to avoid it being snatched by pickpockets. Somehow, this created a problem for the robber. Since the handbag was all wrapped up and tangled around my mom’s wrist, the robber decided to cut her wrist off. The shock so was intense to my mom from the cut that she ran outside the corridor towards the street where a lot of cars and pedestrians were waiting for the green lights. The robber fled right away when my mom ran to the intersection. My mom, with her bleeding hand, cried for help to have a ride to the hospital. NOBODY CARES! Everyone stood there, like SOULLESS people, pretending that my mom was invisible. An empty taxi cab stopped, but upon seeing my mom’s bleeding hand, told her to get out of his cab as she was staining his seats with blood.

How can there be so many cold-hearted people in Taipei? NOBODY came by to give her help. NOBODY called the police. NOBODY gave her a ride to the hospital. They were about to let her BLEED TO DEATH. How can they sleep at night? It is so hard for me to believe that people would just ignore her pleading for help when she was right in front of them. They might be rushing to work. They might be late for a date. They might have school to attend to. They might not want to get stained by my mom’s blood. However, are they more important than giving someone at the brink of death a helping hand? Since they were waiting for traffic lights anyway, couldn’t they just give her a hand? Luckily, there was one kind-hearted motorist who gave my mom a ride to the hospital and saved her life. We are forever grateful for what he did, so I can still have my mom and my kids can still have their grandma. As for that taxi driver as well as the other bystanders, I am truly speechless. To me, they were accomplices to the crime by refusing to give my mom a ride to the hospital. They had no conscience at all.

What if this happened to their beloved? What are they teaching their kids? To be coldhearted and indifferent and to watch people die in front of their own eyes. What has this world become? I told my kids the story. They cannot understand the cruelty in these people. They just cannot understand. They are so pure and innocent. I wish that people can still maintain that purity and innocence. I tried to tell them that we should always give a helping hand within our limits. What comes around goes around? Don't think that this will never happen to you, to your mom, to your dad or to your kids. We will never know. We should do whatever we can to make this world a better place to live.

When I read the news of the Sprint workers fired for being good Samaritans, I can’t help but think of what happened to my family. To me, Americans are always so righteous and ready to help people. With corporations laying down the rules punishing good Samaritans, are we driving our nation to a point of immorality and inhumanity?

** Lastly, let's boycott Sprint.