My thoughts on this topic were sparked when I recently picked up at hitchhiker on my way back from garage sale shopping with my friend. He was a very nice old dude who had the most insane cases of synovitis in his arthritic joints - his elbows were like tennis balls - not to mention he seems to have suffered from Bell's palsy or something similar as he couldn't move the left side of his face. I asked where he was headed, and ended up dropping him off at the restaurant he requested only a short distance away. Noting the trouble the gentleman had getting in and out of the car, and his dependence on his walker made both my friend and I grateful that we noticed him as we drove, as walking was obviously not easy for him.
A couple days later, at an extended family dinner while my aunt was talking about a patient with arthritis at the doctor's office she works at, and I mentioned the horrible joints that the hitchhiker had. Instantly I was met with a circle of aghast family members who began berating me for picking up a hitchhiker. I quickly said that it was no big deal, since I pick up hitchhikers all the time when I see them. **insert yelling and more aghastness** Bad choice on my part to mention that...
When I got home and reflected on the discussion that had ensued after the initial lecture, I was trying to understand my families case slash my retorts which went something like this:
Them: You picked up a hitchhiker! Are you crazy!
Me: No, it was broad daylight on 12th street. He was old and had a walker anyways.
Them: What? You think that murders can't happen in daylight! And that walker could have been to lull you into a false sense of security!
Me: That's ridiculous, he just wanted a ride. What are the chances that he was a murder compared to the chances he is an old guy who wanted a ride?
Them: He is hitchhiking - not walking - he was asking for a ride! The only people who do that have ulterior motives.
Me: Yeah, like getting a ride! And besides, you all hitchhiked when you were young.
Them: Times were different then! It was much safer!
Me: ...urrggg....
Exasperated, I left it at that. At home though I was able to actually do a little research, and I found out that the per capita rate for the most recent data from 2005 is 5.6, which is the lowest it's been since 1965. Take that aunts! Not too mention in all my research I only found a handful of murders of or by hitchhikers - most of them were in the '60s and'70s...
The more I think about it the more upset I became. All these people are so concerned about the 1 in a million chance that a hitchhiker will harm/rob them, that they are completely willing to ignore the immediate needs of a fellow human being.
Schmucks.
Last note: This whole hitchhiking drama has made me want to hitchhike. Next day I have some free time I'm going to try my hand at hitching Erie.
You'll have to let me know how the hitchhiking goes. I only hitched once, in Myrtle Beach, and it was with a group of nine students after our teacher abandoned us at a mini-gold course. We sat in the bed of his pimped-out pickup truck. When I told my mom, she only complained that I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. But I think she was used to me being a hippie by that point in our relationship. ;)
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