Inhumanity

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve never pitted a person before. Yes, I have pitted ideas and actions, but never in my five years here have I pitted a person.

I suppose there’s a first time for everything.

There’s a fellow who lives a block away from me. I can’t honestly say that I’m close enough to call him a friend, but he’s certainly an acquaintance, and a better one at that. I’d known him, his wife and his kids for a while already. We both lived in one neighborhood in Brooklyn and went to the same shul. We both ended up moving to another part of Brooklyn (in fact, he bought the house that my wife and I were considering buying - but he beat us to it). His daughter likes to play with my daughter. I see him in shul on some mornings and we say hello and talk a bit.

Last month, he was riding on his bike on the way to work when he was hit by a car. The driver of the car hit him, stopped, got out of the car to look at him and then drove off. The accident was witnessed, but apparently no one got a plate number. The driver has never been caught.

It was touch and go for a while. He spent the last month in one hospital and is now in another one undergoing rehab for another month. After that, he faces several more months of rehab on an outpatient basis. He has a tube in his throat to help him breathe - as a result this one time mile-a-minute talker can barely say anything now. His right side is extremely weak - he can barely move it. He’s extremely thin.

How someone could do this, I just can’t fathom. Maybe I’m just a bit too naive. I can even understand (although it doesn’t excuse it) someone panicking momentarily and running off, but I would hope that if they have even a shred of humanity, they would be so bothered by what they’d done that they’d own up to it. I know that I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night had I done that.

I firmly believe that there is One out there who makes sure that everyone gets what’s coming to them in accordance with their deeds and actions. I certainly hope that someone a driver gets what he fully deserves.

Zev Steinhardt

2

If he’s such a miserable excuse for a human being that he wouldn’t even try to help, I’d say he probably already has. Nasty people tend to have nasty lives.

3

I hope so.

zev, I hope your good acquaintance recovers well. I know I saw a brother-in-law go from expected to die, to a host of medical problems and near-organ-failures in the ICU, to a year later looking not much the worse for wear, except for a slower gait and somewhat weaker voice. I hope God or karma or whatever looks after him as well.

4

Zev, I don’t think you’re naive. I think you were just raised better than to ever imagine something like that.

I’m sorry to hear about your neighbour. I hope he recovers fully.

5

Zev I’m sending thoughts and prayers for the full and complete recovery of your neighbor. I don’t think you’re naive, just decent. I fully believe that most people would have owned up to it, just as you do.

6

Our two hit-and-runs and another car break-in were much, much less serious than what happened to your friend, but it left us with much the same emotion - what the hell is the matter with people? You wanted my cheap, shiny stereo, so you broke my lock and ripped it out. You came around the corner too fast on a slippery day, broke my taillight, backed up and drove away. Now I have no stereo, a broken door lock and a broken taillight, just because people do such crappy things to other people.

I think the worst is the feeling of complete and utter helplessness. These people made a decision that made my life just a little bit worse, and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.

I hope your friend recovers fully, and doesn’t let this ruin his life. If he does, the bastards win.