Amanda Berry's Hero

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          Mr. Charles Ramsey is the hero in this story, but it's hard to tell when listening to the voice of the 911 operator. He never wavered from being monotonous. It sounded as if the 911 operator was tired, trained to be non-emotive, or he was judging the caller on the other end. The fact that this narrative is judging the 911 operator is not lost on me, either. I realize I'm being judgmental interpreting what I think I heard without giving the operator a chance to speak for himself.  However, the longer I listened, the more I wondered how the 911 operator could remain go glib.

          When I heard Mr. Ramsey explain he's at McDonald's and heard the animation in his voice, my impatient self wanted him to hurry up and get to the point.  I guess the 911 operator felt that way, too.  At first I sympathized with the operator, however, the longer I listened to the call, the more I started to empathize with Mr. Ramsey. He was trying to be helpful, as best he could, and I could only imagine that he also heard the nonchalant operator and probably wondered why he wasn't acting more enthusiastic. Yes, he was excited, but who wouldn't be seeing a woman scratching her way out of a house.

          But in defense of the 911 operator, he has not had a chance to defend himself.  He may get calls like this all the time and may have been trained to sound uninterested; perhaps that is the professional approach.

          Listen for yourself, maybe you heard something else in the intonation. But, in my opinion Mr. Ramsey started off sounding like someone who needed to calm down, but then the operator sounded like someone who was disengaged from the human condition.  I think Mr. Ramsey is the hero and ought to be treated as such.