Human Decency

Human Decency.

I recently read this article:

PITTSBURGH – Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy accused of robbing an usher who worked at the baseball stadium where the Pittsburgh Pirates play after he stopped his car while having a heart attack on his way home from an extra-inning game.
Police aren't identifying the suspect because of his age. They said Tuesday he approached the car and pulled out 58-year-old driver Michael Schacht, who had been slumped over and in distress. They say he stole the man's wallet and drove off in his car, leaving him on the ground.
Police were puzzled by the man's death because he had only a superficial head injury when he was found April 10 a mile from PNC Park.
The suspect doesn't qualify to be charged as an adult. He's being taken to a juvenile detention facility.

When we use words such as depravity, this is the kind of behavior I see. There is an amazing lack of human decency.

I can imagine the conversation with the 17 year old boy would have gone something like this.

He needed the money. He needed the car. He really didn’t do anything wrong. The man was dead and he wasn’t going to be using her car or needing the money any more. But I keep coming back to the belief that the young man probably didn’t believe he did anything wrong.

Where would he have gotten such an idea? If the man was dead, why didn’t the youngster call 911? What was it about his lack of human decency that made him not think that Mr. Schacht may have had a family who loved him and would be devastated by his death, but also even further devastated that this man’s body, this man who they loved, was left on the ground, dead?

Why did he think that Mr. Schacht, even in death, deserved human decency and dignity?

It often makes me think that we, as a society, need to begin re-teaching dignity and respect, and living our lives in a way that facilitates this.

As for Mr. Schacht, I hope he received the kind of funeral he deserved, filled with love and respect.

And as for the young man. I’m not convinced he need to be in prison. Where he needs to be is someplace where he can grow a heart and be taught lessons in decency----in a place where he will be treated with such decency, that he desires to live in that manner toward others.