How Am I Special

Three men had the same thoughts the night before their death:

How am I special? I've always believed I was as obvious as the sun shines. But in the end I'm alone. The earth spins with or without me.

They say every life is important. They say each of us is valuable. The say all of us are needed. But that's what they say, not what they do. Not when they're just letting me die.

I've tried everything. Nothing works! What do I do now? I don't want to die! I want to li-i-i-ive!

"Please, help! Please, help me! Help me, please! Oh God, somebody help!"

But no one looks at me. They just shrug their shoulders. How can you say life is important then turn away in my hour of need? If I'm not important, just say so! Just say I don't count. Don't let me die in a lie.

The world has ended for me. I've got nowhere else to go. They hate me for what I am. What else can I think? If I were important they would fight for me. They'd say they cannot let this man die lest we all die. Ninety-nine is not a hundred.

I have to be free to be me. If I lie I die. Is this not their understanding too? Is this not their fate as well? I have been left to die. It does not matter why. It only matters that it is allowed.

Blood drips slowly from his pores onto the ground, so great the stress.

***

The first man never woke up, having died in the night, frozen to death in a garbage dumpster. Too many day after hellish days of misery left him cold and exhausted. What he didn't know was that his son, deeply ashamed of his father, had become a garbage man after ruining his life too. He discovered his father's dead body. An unsympathetic co-worker asked, "Now do you care?"

The next day the second man enters a theater shooting everyone in sight. "Listen to me! Listen to me, you motherfuckers! I'm here! I exist! I count - whether you like it or not! Don't just sit there laughing when people are dying! I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! Now do you care?"

The next day for the last man found him whipped and beaten. They pretended to not know the truth, demanding he provide a reason why they should care. But he would not answer. Enraged, they put him on a cruel cross to die and that he did. Now do you care?