There is something very frightening that is happening in New York City.  As a New Yorker, I see it more and more firsthand, and as an American I fear it is spreading throughout the Country.  The idea of personal responsibility is all but diminished in the city that never sleeps.  A few weeks ago, a young man left court with a verdict reward of $2.3 Million.  What did this young man do to receive such a reward?  Well, this gentleman a few years ago decided to go to a bar to watch a hockey game and wanted to kick back a few beers.  No problems, all good fun.  When he left the bar, he was so intoxicated that he could not even remember the details of what followed.  What did follow was a drunken stumble down to a subway platform and a subsequent dive off of the platform on to the tracks.  Now for those not familiar with the NYC subway system, there are spaces underneath the platforms which you could fit multiple people in if you tried.  Both outside and inside these spaces is garbage.  A lot of garbage.  Subway cars arrive every few minutes and breeze past the garbage routinely, not thinking much of it.  A subway car approached the platform where the drunken man had fallen and by the time the conductor of the train (a longtime Veteran of the MTA with a spotless record) realized that there was a person on the tracks, the train had accidentally run over the mans leg, severing it.  Now I feel for this guy, it has to be a nightmare having your leg cut off by a train.  What I don't understand is that a jury decided that this man held virtually no responsibility for this accident.  It is a terrible event, however, this man made the choice to drink to the point where he couldn't even recall the moment his leg was cut off.  I'm not saying the conductor is free of fault, but all he did was perform his job as usual and a horrible accident occurred.  To say he is at complete blame is to say that the conductor realized that there was a man on the tracks and maliciously continued to drive the train.  This is an accident which occurred because of the choices this drunken man made.  Skip forward a few weeks and I happened to come across the story of a poor woman who was raped on the subway not long ago.  The woman was assaulted on a subway platform late one night on her way home from school.  What makes this particular story even more tragic and frightening is that TWO subway workers witnessed the entire rape and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to stop it!  The two workers both pressed a panic button to alert their superiors that there was an incident on the platform.  They did not even pick up a phone and directly call police or better yet, get off their behinds and try to HELP THE WOMAN!  I read about how the woman made eye contact with one of the workers who just stared back at her and made no attempt to help her.  Her life was practically ruined that day and when she rightfully tried to sue the MTA for virtually being an accessory to her rape, a Judge threw out her lawsuit and said the subway workers did all they legally had to do.  These two workers who stood by and did nothing are disgusting human beings and the fact that they felt they had no responsibility to stop a horrific crime occuring right in front of them is insulting to anyone with any sort of morals.  This is what the city has become and this is what our country is becoming.  A Nation of people who sit by and watch everything around us burn, while stupidity and arrogance are being rewarded time and time again.   At what point will we return to an era of personal responsibility and common sense?  Or will we just toss it aside permanently in the name of progression?

by Thomas Craig

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