Dawn Is Me

When you see a story like this, you have to ask yourself, “What are we becoming?”

Setting aside the legal ramifications of this case on all those state Good Samaritan laws around the country, what does this say about who we are?

Are we to become the kind of country where we look the other way and walk a little faster when we notice that somebody is hurt, drowning, burning alive in a fire, being raped on the street — because now we have to be worried that we might be sued if we help?

What kind of person can receive that kind of help from another human being regardless of the outcome and then turn around and file suit against them?

You know, I hope that the jury in this case finds in favor of Lisa Torti, even if the woman she rescued trots out a dozen medical experts who testify in support of the plaintiff.

I hope that jury realizes that, even if Torti did inadvertently cause or exacerbate those injuries, she didn’t do it intentionally. She was trying to help somebody who, she thought, was in serious danger of losing her life and she does not deserve to be punished for it.

I’m imagining all the people who will die or get seriously hurt because they now have to be worried about a lawsuit if they help. And I’m wondering how long it’ll be before somebody will play it safe and look the other way, and somebody will die — and the bystander will get sued because they didn’t help.

It’s interesting that they blame this stuff on trial lawyers. I had a kid get injured in an accident in a neighbor’s yard once. Despite his fears, it never crossed my mind to sue him over it and I doubt there’s anything a lawyer could have said to me to persuade me to sue him.

Why not? Because it wasn’t his fault.

I wonder if that makes me unAmerican?