RIP Humanity

By Perla Semaan

 

The more I live, the more I see.

The more I know, the more I’m disgusted by humans.

Merciless, shallow, cruel, savage, empty humans.

 

A young lady of 40 knocked on my door this afternoon. She was wearing sunglasses. As soon as she took them off, I understood why she came. She had cancer in one eye; the other one was completely healthy. I interrupted her as soon as she started talking and invited her in. She paused at people’s doors seeking help with high self-esteem; she didn’t beg. She needed to raise enough money for the surgery. Three years ago, she was happily engaged and cancer-free, until she fell hard one day causing the entry of a piece of metal deep into her eye. Doctors were supposed to remove the metal; but they didn’t, which caused later the cancer. The surgery she needs now consists on removing the infected eye, so the cancer doesn’t spread all over her head. The surgery costs 50000$. She is an only child and she has already lost her mother. Her dad, 85 years old, was all she had left in this world. I wanted to know more. I loved talking and listening to her that my questions never seemed to end. But one question I regret I asked; for the answer broke my heart.

” Are people being nice to you? “

With tears in her eyes, she said: I’m so tired of people treating me like I’m a piece of shit. They walk away from me afraid of catching the disease; though cancer is not contagious. I went to a church asking for help, the priest kicked me out; literally kicked me out. I knocked on a mansion’s door, the lady behind it called on her bodyguard and ordered him to show me the way out. I told her I’m not a beggar and that she simply could have said she doesn’t want to help me instead of humiliating me. I turned my back and as I was leaving, she hissed at me, and with her finger, called for my return. As I approached her again, she handed me 250L.L. I gave it back to her and said: “I wish you never experience pain. May God be with you and your family.”

She then added: “I have no shoulder to cry on, I feel so lonely and abused. I may have a smile on my face, but on the inside, it’s so dark.”

Her pride was hurt; it killed her that she had to walk around asking for money. But what else can she do?

The whole thing left me annoyed, disgusted, and sickened by the way people treated her. Have they lost all feelings of compassion? Have they ever had them at all? Every day the world is growing crueler and crueler. And if this is how it’s going to be, then why live at all?