Whoever stole Spring, returned it just in time for Mother's Day, because New York City's skies were nothing but clear, blue and sunny from noon till sunset. With relatively light traffic and free street parking, it was the perfect day to head to Hell's Kitchen for a little Pakistani and Bangladeshi cuisine. But before leaving the house, I checked my Bum App to determine the level of beggar activity in the area I'd planned to hangout in. This is always a wise move if you're going to be anywhere near this section of the city.
Unfortunately, since the App can't track crazy people, despite my best efforts to make the outing as uneventful as possible, the day turned out to be one hell of an eye opener. At the risk of sounding like a snob, I must admit, I generally go out of my way to avoid engaging New York City up close and personal. After visiting civilized cities in other parts of the world, I've come to understand, NYC may be a lot of things, but civilized is not one of them. So for someone like me finding himself face to face with a stark raving Crazy Guy and no immediate solution for the problem, the situation gave me something to think about.
I suppose if this encounter was with your garden variety bum, beggar or street creep that could be bought off with a buck or two, I wouldn't have been so startled by the event. No, this guy was crazy. He was so screwy, he probably didn't even know what money meant. After asking a brick wall some off the wall questions and turning toward me for answers, I realized, they don't make nuts like this guy everyday. And I didn't need a PHD in couch-time to make the diagnosis. Crazy is like pornography, you know it when you see it. He could hurt himself or worse, because this crazy guy could be a threat to anyone he came in contact with. Why was he free, I wondered?
In a civilized society, issues like this wouldn't be tolerated. In civilized societies, something would've been done about this crazy guy a long time ago because he's been crazy for a long time. In a civilized society, there would be a number to call other than the police to have the crazy guy confronted, evaluated and removed from the public if warranted. And you can take my word for it, getting this crazy guy off the street was warranted. He was crazy for crying out loud. And this fact can not be overstated.
In a civilized society, the crazy guy would be provided psychiatric care, medication if necessary (and it was) and then housed in a safe protective space until his issues could be resolved or at the very least, stabilized. In a civilized society, there would be funding and resources reserved for dedicated professionals to respond 24/7 to incidents of public insanity. In a civilized society, people would do more than just look the other way and cross the street, while dreading the next crazy guy they were bound to encounter later, because there's no shortage of crazy guys in NYC.
Bottom line: I suppose I'm no more civilized than the throngs of other New Yorkers and tourists enjoying the city on Mother's Day, because the only thing I did to help the crazy guy was just what everybody else did. Looking the other way, I crossed the street, and immediately began dreading the next crazy guy I was bound to encounter later, because there's no shortage of crazy guys in NYC.
Still, in my defense, what was I supposed to do? Being the only one to openly display my horror to a situation everyone else was either ignoring or taking in stride, would've made me look as crazy as the crazy guy. Podcast below!
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