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August 16, 2005
People like you..
I’m usually quiet and introverted, until I think that an injustice is being done and then ... I wouldn’t say I get mouthy but what happens is that words slip out before I’ve had a chance to really think about what I’m saying and whether I should be getting involved.
Today Littleone and I were sitting outside Sainsburys waiting for Mr. PE when CRASH this elderly woman falls down in front of us, whacking her head rather hard on the pavement.
A passer-by grabs her and asks if she is OK. To which she replies rather rudely
‘No I’m not actually.’ (another one of my pet hates, when ‘actually’ is spoken with that particular emphasis) and starts laying into a cyclist who had apparently knocked her down.
And so the passer by is supporting the woman’s head with one hand and with the other he is waving his finger at the cyclist and it seems like all of a sudden the whole of Cambridge (well OK perhaps one or two other people) are abusing this poor cyclist who incidentally fell off his bike in the scuffle and looks just as shaken as the woman . The whole time he is standing there repeating the words,
‘I’m so sorry. Are you OK? I put my brakes on as soon as I saw you but I just couldn’t stop in time.’
Then I hear the words.
‘People like you shouldn’t be allowed to ride bikes.’
People like you? Another term that gets my back up right away. Perhaps I should explain that the woman and her cronies were all ‘well’ spoken and ‘well’ dressed and the cyclist was dressed in ripped jeans, leather jacket, with piercings and a mohawk. Oh and an Irish accent to top it all off. In other words he shouted OUTSIDER from the rooftops.
It is at this moment I hear a commandeering voice almost bellow.
‘OK OK That’s enough. It was an accident. Can’t you see?’
Suddenly everyone is staring at me. Did I say that? I certainly thought it.
The head supporter is now looking a me like he has just scrapped me off the pavement.
‘Yes. It was an accident but he shouldn’t have been riding on the pavement’
‘True but we all make mistakes, he said he was sorry. I think we should be concentrating on the injured don’t you?’
‘But did you hear her head crack on the pavement?’
This argument didn’t really get him very far as by now half the Sainsburys staff and a first-aider had turned up and the woman had started off again about how ‘these people’ shouldn’t be allowed on the streets.
Not a lot wrong with her really.
By which time Mr. PE came out and ushered me away from the trouble. I feel a bit bad for walking off but by now it was out of my hands.
If it had been the other way round and the well spoken lady had been on the bike and the punk had got knocked over, I wonder if there would have been as much noise about it?
Of course not.
I’m still trying to work out if opening my mouth was the right thing to do or not. Because even me and with what I believe in I can’t help looking back thinking that there was a little old lady flat on the floor (and yes I did hear her head crack, in fact it’s still going through my head now) and I didn’t stick up for her.
Posted by purple elephant at August 16, 2005 06:12 PM