one good deed

Sept 11, 2008

It has been my intention to do some good deed on the anniversary of the 11th every year since the attack. Last night while I worked, a young man with a disturbing problem presented himself.

He was a 25-year-old black male who came in police custody. He smartly got my attention before he was even triaged and began to explain a sad and complex story. He is gay, and he has been beat up for many years for being gay. He has suffered injuries including a fractured zygomatic arch (his cheekbone), a punctured lung, and many smaller though no less painful injuries - all because he's gay.

He currently lives one block from a local high school and he is repeatedly insulted, followed and abused by kids from that school: they have thrown bottles at him, let their pit bull after him, followed him in their cars and threatened him. The recent bait and threats coming from these kids led him to the school to try and address the principle - to see if something could be done.

I have no idea what the whole total story is, but he ended up in police custody because some kids reported to the principle that he threatened them with a weapon (which he did not have); so the principle responded by having the boy arrested on school property for trespassing and accusations of threatening students. The police brought him to the ER when he refused to go into central booking lock-up with so many other men - for fear of possible rape and or beatings.

He received a psychiatric consult in my care, a meal from me and a whole lot of attention. At his request, I called his grandmother who knew he was in police custody, and let her know where he was. She was deeply thankful for the information and we took some time to speak a bit about his situation. I told her I would think about what community resources there might be for her (and him) to address the problem - and give him that information. She agreed that the local police cannot do very much until an assault has occurred and we wanted to avert that if possible. It was 12:30am when we spoke and there was no one I could call so late. I sent him back with police around 1:30am and wished him luck. He looked disappointed but not surprised. He said he was so tired of all this. I felt a little helpless.

Today, after getting some sleep from the overnight shift, I made a few calls to friends/colleagues in the area and someone smartly recommended the NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (http://www.avp.org/) - which I am so grateful to have as a resource for exactly this kind of thing. I mean really, what else do you tell this kid? Hide? Get some mace? Don't be gay?

I called the grandmother a short while ago this evening and gave her the information, and she invoked on more than one occasion "God is good" and thanked me for the follow-up. She asked if she could have the number in the ER to call and let me know the good progress they would surely make from my help. It was hard not to start crying right there on the phone (or now as I type this).

I will not, as they say here in Brooklyn, "front" and pretend I have any specific faith in a particular God. I have heard this phrase, which has rung so hollow in times before - yet I felt it were true today.

It's so hard to make sense of the violence in the world, be it the memory of the attacks on the twin towers or the attack on one young black man trying to just live in this world.
But if God has anything to do with why I love my job so much, and why I care about so many people I don't personally know - then yes, God is good.