Saturday, March 26, 2005

Adventures on the CTA #5 --- Perverts and Heros

Wednesday I was riding back at night on the Red Line (never a dull moment, as one rider that night put it). One very foul-mothed pervert with a camera phone was trying to take pictures of this one woman, who was clearly not happy about it. The only place she could really be was by the doors, so she could at least look away from the pervert. Meanwhile, he was harassing her and swearing up a storm. My first instinct was to pray that God would thwart his plans. Within 1 second, a man with a newspaper stood up, walked to where the pervert was sitting, and stood between him and the woman, causally reading his newspaper like nothing else was going on. The pervert wasn't very happy, but it's not like he could say anything. Thought one: it's nice to see there are people who are willing to intervene. Thought two: why didn't I think of that? Next time I'll know what to do. Thought three: Praying for strangers has special rewards.