A recent on-campus bike spill left my elbow broken and my faith in my fellow humans injured. Is it in our nature to let other humans suffer? Truly, the Black Eyed Peas ask the right question: "Where is the love?"
On this past Monday morning, Nov.12, I was involved in a cycling accident that left my right elbow's radial head fractured. This is an injury that really restricts my extracurricular activities as a right-handed single male.
The incident took place on the large sidewalk from the Union to Ellicott. I would love to exaggerate the happenings of that morning with ninjas, naked ladies and fire, however, I cannot because I was not alone. There were two witnesses on the sidewalk at that time who did just that - witness, and nothing else. My issues are with these two men and their reactions.
The truth in the matter is that I was simply riding my ghetto fab mountain bike incorrectly and managed to flip myself over the handlebars in what I can only imagine looked like a stunt from a free circus in a mental hospital. Since I did not have both hands on the controls (yes, I'm one of those kids who coast along with no hands), I flew from the bike when the front wheel collapsed inward. My body landed not far from the bike, and I was able to execute the proper tuck and roll dismount. However, despite my best efforts, I still managed to land on my right elbow. This bought me a six-hour stay at Sisters Hospital in downtown Buffalo.
As I pulled myself from the bike wreckage on the sidewalk, I noticed something very peculiar: No one was running to me yelling, "medic!" No one was pointing and laughing. No one was even looking at me.
The two other guys there had iPod ear buds wedged deep into their ears. One was looking up and the other was looking down. Neither of the two students coming toward me seemed to care at all. They apparently cared so little that one guy literally stepped over my fallen bike to continue on his way. The other guy did not get off so easy. We made eye contact as I got up and I questioned him, "Did you see that?"
He replied, "Yeah," followed it up with a slight smile and continued on his way, as well.
This got me thinking a little later as I struggled to feed myself lunch: Either I had managed to perform my 180 tire tuck with no return in front of the only two kids on campus who spectate bicycle collisions for a living or something is seriously wrong with today's human race.
Forget that age-old question about the tree falling in the forest. I want to know why, when people see a kid falling off a bike, they don't make a sound? Would you say something? I know I would at least inquire as to the health of the victim without having to be coerced.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not upset at these two guys. It was my own stupidity that caused me to crash. I'm just surprised at the total carelessness we seem to have for each other these days. They didn't even have the natural reaction to laugh at me as I squirmed on the ground. They simply looked away and pretended not to have noticed, as if the absence of eyes makes everything all better. It makes me wonder what else we as people would just walk by. It is scary to think that today people may simply turn up their iPods to drown out the screams of someone getting beaten or just look the other way if they don't like what they see.
Granted, this was just a small bike accident, but that's the problem. If people are too careless and/or self-involved to at least stop briefly at a small bike crash, then what makes you think they would stop at anything else, like a car crash? People just assume that problems other than their own do not affect them and that they should try to stay out of trouble as much as possible. This entails blasting Britney's new album into your ear hole and looking the other way. It seems to me that people just don't have time for their fellow humans anymore. I'm not saying that we as people are all selfish, terrible beings, but we all seem to have our own individual agenda that does not leave any room for strangers.
Not long ago I was in Capen Library and witnessed a girl asking a guy to watch her stuff. She insisted that she would not be longer than 10 minutes. He agreed and she went on her way. However, after about five minutes the guy got a phone call, and from what I could hear he was being invited to a party. He quickly packed up his stuff and left, still giddily talking about how many chemicals he was going to put into his body later that night. He had no regard for the girl's stuff, which she had entrusted to him.
Why are people so easily forgetful of others? Do we consider strangers and people we don't have pre-existing relationships with to be worthless? The logical answer is no, but our actions say otherwise.
Then again, maybe those two guys really didn't see me (not a chance), and maybe that library guy had a family emergency (with grandpa Jaeger bomb), or maybe I'm just emo on Lortab. In other words, I'm not suggesting you take a bullet for anyone and everyone, but at least be willing to bandage them up. You would want the same.
By the way, I appreciated that personal in Generation. It made my day.
