It was a fairly average week day evening in Springtime New York. My husband and I were going to Manhattan to meet a good friend for dinner. We were tired, but travelling against rush hour made the trip easy. The subway was only about one third full and air conditioned.

We got on at a stop in Brooklyn that is above ground. About two minutes into our ride, we heard a shout/ grunt and a thump. Someone yelled – call 911 – as we turned to see a sixty-five or so year old man in somewhat rumpled and sullied attire had fallen completely forward, onto the floor, head first and was having a seizure. The seizure lasted for at least thirty seconds or more, and in my limited knowledge of seizures, seemed rather bad because of the length of time it went on.

Both my husband and the woman beside him called 911. Fortunately the next stop on the train was also above ground. My husband and a few people waved down the conductor a few cars up and told him we had someone seizing or having a heart attack. The truth is, unless you are an EMT or very familiar with seizures, it was difficult to tell what was happening, and we didn’t want to take any chances that this not be taken seriously.

The subway waited, and the ambulance said it was on the way. Then a policeman arrived. He walked onto the train, and as the poor guy who had been seizing was now lying there, stunned, while the policeman started yelling at him. The policeman nudged him less than graciously and repeatedly yelled, “get up… come on… you’re holding up the train… get off the train,” as the poor man moaned in frightened and dazed confusion.

I stood up to explain to the policeman that I had witnessed a fairly bad seizure or something ( indicating that the man might be out of it and not ready to hop up) at which point the policeman yelled at me “Yes, I know!” and motioned for me to back off, which I did.

Minutes later an EMT arrived in fluorescent apparel to approach the man and kick him. When he grunted and moved, she turned to the passengers, now a stalwart audience and said, “well, it wasn’t a heart attack,” smugly as if this justified the kick. I yelled out that he had had a bad seizure, that we had witnessed this. The EMT tried to get him to get up and said, “come on, get off the train. You’re holding these people up.” She turned to the audience and said, “don’t worry, well have you on your way very quickly,” and then turned back and tried to prod the man up again. Finally, she said to him, “we’re going to help you.”

The man would not or could not stand He was clearly disoriented. The conductor, now standing on the platform, looked in the doorway to the captive audience and motioned drinking a bottle.

At this point I was enraged. I had had a few drinks on Saturday night and ridden the subway home. What if I had had a seizure then. Would anyone have kicked me or treated me as they were treating this man. The answer is no. He was black. Dressed in very worn clothes. Had a small suitcase with him. He was either in transit or homeless. But he was not forty and in a nice hip dress with leggings and converse, pretty hair and a pop necklace. Gold wedding ring on my finger and clean finger nails. I would not have been kicked.

Even if this man was drinking – he did have a seizure. And several of us kept telling the EMT this. After a bad seizure it takes a person time to orient themselves. They wouldn’t hop up and trot off a subway. And he hit his head fairly hard, so he might have had a concussion.

Finally another EMT joined the first and they helped the man up and off the subway. All I could think of was how American this scene was. How indicative of what we, as a nation, have become. Maybe it’s what we always were, bit it seems during the Roosevelt era we strived to take better care of the people who we are.

All the EMT was concerned about was getting us, the passengers dressed in nice clothes with places to be on our way. With a smile for us and a kick for the injured man, this is America. We have become a nation who disregards those in need, those who are homeless, tired and poor. Those who make a meager living in manufacturing or fishing the polluted waters that the Giants have turned into sewerage. We have become a Nation who allows people not yet charged to be tortured, who allows a man, in transit or homeless, to be kicked. Just because he happened to get sick in the wrong place at the wrong time and interfere with the routines of those better off. These things are all connected, and I warn, as Obama tries to delay the Miranda rights for suspected terrorists to extend the amount of time that the prisoner suspected does not get habeas corpus, that we are becoming everything we have stood against.

I pray that all homeless or persons in transit who have worn clothes and dirty nails get sick on the subway so that we might protect these people from the humiliation of being kicked without an alibi, and we might bare witness to the people we are.

ld napier