What would Eric be incensed over . . .
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009One of the main reasons behind writing Blood and Metal is what Eric would define as what America should be. All along the story, he does random acts of kindness, rescue a cat from a tree, take down a Mechanoid, patch up a kid’s skinned knee, stand up for an misunderstood critter, all sorts of things. And all the time he’ll say that he’s not doing anything anyone else couldn’t do.
“Eric, I heard what you said about it all, about all the claims about the heroics you’ve done. You merely shrugged your shoulders and say, ‘Pshaw, anybody would have done it.’ Eric, nobody had done it like you. I’ve haven’t heard of someone just jumping off his bike and saving anyone out of the goodness of his heart, has anyone? — Charles, BAM 01
If Eric would have any example on what an Un-American world would be like, he would point to this sad case in Connecticut not too long ago. A near eighty year old Angel Arce Torres was run over by a perusing car, and just laid there unconscious, paralyzed, and silent.
Nobody fucking helped.
Cars just drive by. A guy on motorcycle just circled him and rolled away. Pedestrians just gawk and walk on by. And I’m sure someone snapped the picture of the still-living body to post on the internet with “LAWLS!!!1111!!1!” plastered on it. (And then the troll called 911, probably just to laugh over it.) But that was it. Nobody came to comfort the poor soul. Nobody even bothered to stop traffic. When a cop finally showed up, it was for an unrelated purpose; there was a chance that he’d be left to die.
There’s a good chance that nobody in the city or state would do a thing over it, despite the public outrage and the family’s cries. (All of which would have been dismissed as butt-hurt.)
Angel Arce Torres was taken off life support earlier this year. He wasn’t even eulogized. Outside of some assholes that would drop a neck brace on his tombstone. And yes, they did it for the lulz. And they were the ones driving the cars that hit him.
This is not the kind of world Eric would want to live in, although Kentuckians have enough of a moral compass to help people they know have been, say, powned by a tornado. And it’s definitely the kind of world anyone in the 9-12 movement would rail against. BAM would show Eric inspiring the public in Vintanos to find their own ‘inner hero,’ saying that it is the highest in patriotism, in ether Vintanos or the strange, new, and in some places popular American philosophy, (You’ll find a lot of US flags and pins by Book 4) to not only strive for their own dreams and desires, getting educated, making inventions, starting businesses, making art and all that, but to also be aware that they’re a part of a community of like minded people and to help others in mean. That includes scraping people off the ground when they’re run over. Oh sure, make sure you bring the neck brace too, but for Gaia’s sake, at least bring the fucking neck brace!
Angel Torres didn’t even get that!
