Killer Fast Food

 Killer Fast Food

So this past week, there I was, just relaxing in my apartment.  Homework done, dinner eaten, and about 2.5 hours deep into Netflix.  I was hardly paying attention at this point but you darn well know I kept telling Netflix I was "still watching".  Then I see the wall by my living room window start to have that telltale red and blue glow.  "It's going down!" I yelled to my roommate (my obsession with people watching is shared, or at least has rubbed off on him).



Now, disclaimer, I'm not one to profit off of another's misfortune.  BUT.  I think we can all take a valuable lesson from this one.  So as I go over to the window I see BUPD has one vehicle already at the McDonald's, and another one is pulling into the lot.  Then I see a man is passed out in the middle of the parking lot.  He appears unresponsive as his family stands around him.  Only a few moments later the full blown cavalry arrives: ambulance, emergency medical SUV, 3 Peoria PD cruisers, and another BUPD to wrap up the crew.

not all vehicles shown

In the heat of the moment the first thing to really pop into my head is: why do we need so much response for a single passed out man? A bit insensitive of me, I know, but I do appreciate the speed and dedication with which all of these men and women responded.

Luckily, this story has a happy ending as far as I know.  They got the man on a stretcher, not in a body bag, where he was laying inclined.  And took him into the ambulance and off to the nearest medical facility (hooray for happy endings and prayers go out to this man's family).  I'm sure by now, knowing the setting of our story, most of you have a mental picture of the man on the stretcher and many of you most likely assumed the same that many of my friends did when I told them the story: that he was an above middle age, obese man, who'd had one too many Quarter Pounders (or maybe it was the Diet Cokes that did him in).

But the truth is, the man in our story was not much older than us, maybe in his lower thirties if I had to guess.  He was also of average build for his age, I'd even go as far as saying he was in decent shape.  Lets just say he wouldn't have been the one the bear would have caught up to if it was him versus all the other people on the property.  So what lessons can we take from the assumptions we made?

We all know we stereotype, we're all guilty as the person next to us.  But I think what we need to understand is that we don't know everyone's life story.  We don't know their demons or their hurdles or their struggles (physical or otherwise).  And most importantly we don't know what decisions they've made that have brought them to their current situation.  So whether you see a man passed out in McDonald's or a homeless person on the street or maybe it's the mother with the annoying kid at Walmart, maybe we can start assuming the best in people and looking for the good in them.