According to an article on Tribune’s ChicagoBreakingNews, this morning, a person was hit and killed by a Red Line train at the Sox-35th station. It is still unclear if this person was accidentally hit by the train (which can be caused by being too close on the blue safety line), if this person intentionally jumped in front of the train, or perhaps was pushed in front of the train. The ensuing operation by emergency responders caused the line to be shut down for a time, and even upon restoration, caused massive delays along the red line in this morning’s rush hour.

Police, firefighters, and CTA workers remove a body from under a CTA Red Line train at the 35th Street station today (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)

It’s disturbing enough to hear when something like this happens, whether it was accidental or on purpose. But what I find even more disturbing are the comments to this article, where people dismiss the tragic loss of life, bemoan how they were made late for work, were made to wait stopped on a train for 30 minutes, and complain that emergency responders didn’t speed things up.

In our overindulgent society of “me,” we want what we want when we want it, consequences and all others be damned. Tragic accident? “So what? Who cares! It made me late for my self-important job in the loop! Pay attention to me!! Look at how important I am!!”

It just seems like we’ve lost sight of what’s important. Had I been on a Red Line commute this morning, and found out that the delays were due to such an accident, I’m pretty darned sure I wouldn’t be blaming the victim, bemoaning emergency officials lack of speed in clearing the tracks, or the CTA’s lack of a way to quickly bypass such an incident. And I most certainly wouldn’t start name-calling the few individuals on a comments section who had their perspectives right and had compassion for the victim’s family and friends.

It’s called empathy. And it’s a word a lot of people seem to have forgotten (or simply never learned), but sorely need to learn.