A Modern Story

A man, bleeding heavily, lay on the downtown sidewalk of a busy city.  To any casual observer he appeared to be the victim of a mugging. People hurried by him, careful to avoid the spreading blood, on their way to their businesses.

The first to pause was a self-made millionaire who addressed the man as follows: I am sorry for your plight and am in personal pain to see you suffer. However, I am a self-made man who, by hard work and determination, has made my way through life so that I wouldn’t end up where you are. It is unfortunate that you made some bad decisions along the way, but, you have no one to blame for your plight but yourself.

The next to pause was a middle-aged well-dressed woman who said: Poor man! I wish I could help you, but, I have heard about the dangers of blood-born disease and so cannot touch you for fear of catching a deadly disease myself. You will have to help yourself.

A parson happened by who immediately knelt on the ground next to the man and said quietly: Such are the wages of sin. However, our God is a loving God who, if you sincerely repent, will forgive you and welcome you into his heavenly kingdom. I will pray for you.

A conservative politician was next to address the man: I am so, so sorry to see you in such a state. We must all work together to make our streets safer so that this type of thing doesn’t happen to others. I will build more prisons and dictate harsher sentences so that others will not become victims like yourself.

A liberal politician said: We must launch a Royal Commission to examine the root causes of what has happened to you. The Commission will hear from witnesses and experts who will explain why you and others like you are on our streets bleeding. They will make recommendations so that we can better understand what has led to your fate.

  

A holy man, freshly returned from years of meditation, said to him: Do not focus on your pain. It is a transitory illusion. Look only to the present and seek inner peace.

Finally, a police officer saw the man and approached him. He examined the man’s wounds and then used his cell phone to call for an ambulance.  However, due to cutbacks needed to finance additional prisons and Royal Commissions, emergency services had been reduced to one ambulance for the entire city and it was busy attending to others in need of urgent help.

After the man died, the city coroner held an inquest and recommended that emergency services should, in future, guarantee a response time of ten minutes and that police officers be given more training in first aid.