Scene and heard

Last Thursday afternoon, I was walking up lower Broadway. With the ever shifting, never ending road works, the section just above 140 Broadway is now down to 2 lanes. An ambulance was blaring it horn and siren, beckoning vehicles in its way to clear a path. As the light turned red, only a small bus and a delivery van were in front of it. The bus moved to the right; the van, ignoring decency, slowed to a halt alongside the bus. I yelled at the driver “What is wrong with you!!” He half heartedly mouthed an insult before driving through the red light.

I was yet again reminded of a story I believe I related on this blog about a year ago:

In 1980, a man who thought that holding up emergency vehicles was fun, impeded the passage of an ambulance. His mother had had a heart attack and this vehicle was trying to get to her and hopefully save her life. But the woman paid the supreme penalty for giving birth to an asshole son. I hope he has never had a good night sleep since. And every time I see someone doing what the van driver did last Thursday, I wish that if anyone’s mother has to die as a result of their selfishness, thoughtlessness, ignorance and/or cruelty, that it is theirs.