Stuck in Liberalism

Walking along Pico, a busy street, I passed a man lying face down on the sidewalk. His head lay on the curb; one leg remained on a bus bench, so he had clearly toppled off. Even prosperous Los Angeles neighborhoods possess a few resident homeless, and this was probably one. He looked disheveled.

Naturally, I continued past. After a dozen paces I stopped because my conscience was hectoring me. “You have to help this fellow,” it pointed out.

“Someone else will notice,” I replied.

“Not good enough.”

“I do fine with patients,” I pointed out. “But this is not a professional situation.”

“Doctors have a moral obligation to help anyone in distress!” said my conscience.

“That’s flattering, but many doctors disagree. You should read the physicians on internet forums. Most are very conservative.”

“You have to help.”

“….They hate Obamacare. They think welfare patients are deadbeats. They don’t even like patients with private insurance. Their idea of heaven is a cash-only practice.”

“Not good enough.”

While I paced in a circle, debating this irritating voice, a hundred cars and dozens of pedestrians passed by. Finally, I gave up. The 911 dispatcher listened to my report and then transferred me to the fire department. The fire department dispatcher listened and then transferred me to the paramedics.

“How old is he?” asked a paramedic.

“Middle-aged.”

“What do you mean ‘middle-aged’?  he snapped. “Forty… Fifty… Sixty?”

“Fifty,” I guessed.

After several more questions designed to show that I was bothering him, he told me to wait until the ambulance arrived. As I waited, the man stirred.

“That’s all I need!” I thought. “For him to get up and walk away.”

But he didn’t. The ambulance arrived within five minutes, and the paramedics went to work. When they ignored me, I walked off.