A Bag Full of Trash

An unidentified woman, victim of a hit-and-run, was being kept in this funeral parlor. Nothing was found on her that would give her identity. The newscaster proceeded to give a general description of what the woman looked like, then said that the police speculated that she must have been mentally-ill for she was carrying a bag full of thrash when she met the accident.

Maybe she was, or maybe she just couldn’t stand the sight of garbage in the streets that it has become her habit to pick up whatever she can to put these away properly.

You accidentally hit someone with your car, the SANE thing to do is to stop and bring that someone to the hospital. Or to the funeral parlor. But no, the driver just kept going on. He didn’t stop, didn’t even slow down. In fact he must have stepped harder on the accelerator. Yet the police didn’t think that was crazy. The woman was crazy. She carried with her a bag full of trash.

What’s crazy, anyway? Who’s insane?

Is it the driver who stops at a red light in the middle of the night or the rest of them who ignore it and drive past it? Is it the Land Transportation Officer who foolishly makes all license applicants go through the actual driving test making our streets safe in the process, or the rest of them who simply ask applicants for a few hundred pesos not caring if the applicant will endanger pedestrians and other motorists with his lack of actual driving skills or road courtesy? Is it the driver who accepts a citation ticket for a violation and the police officer who issues one, or the rest of them who simply pay off the cops and the officers who actually accept the bribe? Is it the lone pedestrian on the overpass or the rest of them jumping over the fence in the middle of the road?

Is it the one who bought and planted a ten-peso pine seedling who would have to wait twenty years for it to grow? Or is it the man who bought and planted a multi-million-peso concrete one?

Is it the woman with a bag full of garbage or the politician with a mouthful who throws these around in people’s faces, or is it the people who can stomach the trash thrown their way?

Is it the anonymous woman with a bag full of garbage, hit and killed by a reckless driver who’s a product of the corrupt system, a woman who has nobody to claim her lifeless body, no identity – described as probably insane by the system, and who’ll be forgotten by the next commercial break?

Or is it the man who promised garbage when he was campaigning, delivered garbage when he won, carrying with him a bag full of empty promises, on his shoulders an empty head save for some sinful thoughts – described by himself and his cohorts as the best so-and-so ever, and is never forgotten because his name and his face are plastered on waiting sheds, garbage trucks, construction billboards, etc.

Maybe that woman saw an empty Coke can on the other side of the street and proceeded to cross to pick it up. She didn’t see the car coming, the driver didn’t see her walking. The fender made contact with her body, and she was airborne for a moment, and so was her bag. Full of trash. She was already lifelessly lying on the ground when her bag opened in mid-air and all her garbage flew out covering the ground around her. With trash. She’s gone, that crazy woman, and so was the driver, that smart guy.

She’s gone now, the woman with no name. But the garbage remains. Care to continue her legacy and pick up the trash?
Are you crazy?