Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Outstanding!
So, imagine that your job is to help people. People with disabilities. People who need help with transportation, getting on and off the buses operated by the company you work for. Sometimes, these people are entirely at your mercy, trusting you to secure them safely, to see them safely to their destination.
Got it?
Now, what happens when at the end of your shift, and you're running late. There's still someone with cerebral palsy on your bus, strapped in and unable to move. The bus has gone back to the lot, rather than taking the young man to his home, as it was supposed to do. What should you do?
Well, the obvious answer is that you leave that person strapped in overnight, and make sure you don't miss the start of church. At least, that was the answer for bus matron Linda Hockaday:
On Thursday night police charged a 51-year-old woman for allegedly leaving a mentally and physically challenged man -- overnight -- on a bus for 19 hours.
Ed Rivera, who has cerebral palsy and the mental capacity of a 2-year-old, survived alone, trapped in a parking lot Wednesday night, as the wind chill hovered near zero.
* * *
Rivera didn't arrive home Wednesday night. His special needs bus, ironically named Outstanding Transport, should have dropped him in East Harlem, but investigators found him almost a day later -- miles away in a Brooklyn bus yard. Sources tell CBS 2 HD Rivera was strapped in his seat directly behind the driver's seat. How the driver missed him is not known.
However, late Thursday sources told CBS 2 HD police were talking to the bus matron Linda Hockaday, the assistant to the bus driver. The source said Hockaday admitted to knowing that Rivera was still on the bus when it was locked up on one of the coldest nights of the year. Her rationale for leaving? She apparently didn't want to be late for church. (Emphasis mine.)
Other sources confirm that this was the excuse she gave to police at the time of her arrest.
Now, was this the real reason she left? I dunno. Maybe she had a hot date planned or wanted to get home in time to catch some favorite television program, but thought that telling the cops that she was late for church sounded better. Maybe we'll find out that this was all an elaborate plot on the part of some evil atheist activist to make good church-goin' people look bad.
Yeah, I'm sure that's what really happened. Because No True Christian could ever do something so callus.
Jim Downey
(Via PZ and other sources.)
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Wow...deja vu...
I thought I must've landed on an old page -- this isn't the first time this has happened.
I remember reading similar stories over the past couple of years, and thought this was simply a regurgitated version (tho the incident I remember involved a male driver).
I did a quick check to see if I could find a reference to the earlier story, but all I found was this bit about the Canadian incident where one passenger started stabbing another passenger, then severed his head.
I think I'll steer clear of bus travel for a while.
Abandoned Cerebral Palsy Passenger
I guess going to church is more important to at least one Christian than helping out a crippled man. To a Christian, attending church is a moral thing to do. Most atheists have a better understanding of morality, recognizing that it is how we treat other humans, and has nothing to do with a supreme being, church, religion, or prayer.
This women is disgusting. Yes, I know, most Christians would not have done that. Nor would most atheists. Peace.