A few days ago, I was at a brown line stop and this lady in front of me tapped her CTA card and as she walked through the rotating gate it stopped midway through trapping her inside. I was drunk so foolishly I just stood there and watched her struggle to escape. She turned around and looked at me and said something to me in Spanish. Combining her frantic gestures, tone and volume of voice, and the context that she is trapped like an animal in a cage I assumed she wanted me to help her out. 
	I have a veteran CTA card. It’s magical really. Free public transportation in the city of Chicago. I was rich. I had infinite money, but the catch is that I can only use it on buses and trains in Chicago. I walked up to the gate and tried scanning my magical card and it gave an error. The lady in the cage knew the sound. We both looked at each other and I almost started to panic for her. How the hell is she gonna get herself out, and how do I just walk away from this mess? I can’t. 
	This is the Chicago brown line stop and as far as I can remember there was no booth to be manned. The lady pushed on the gate a couple more times, hoping the gate felt sorry for how embarrassing this was for her and maybe these little nudges would allow her through. It did not.
	I walked up to the gate and instead of helping push, I pulled and lo’ and behold the damn thing slightly gave. I pulled harder and I managed to open up just enough space for the lady to escape. She said something in Spanish. I don’t know what she said, but it wasn’t thank you because I know how to say thank you in Spanish.
	I waved, a general gesture for, “don’t worry about it I gotta go.” The lady tried tapping her CTA card again and it sounded like an insufficient funds beep. I felt bad, so I scanned my gate for me to go throw and walked over to try to scan hers but these machines are smart, it knew I had a magical free rides card and wouldn’t allow me to scan another gate in. What an incredibly cheap, and greedy move to have thought of such a thing when creating these free ride cards.  I shrugged my shoulders, told her sorry, and walked through my gate. 
	The timing was perfect, as the train had just pulled up. As the doors opened, I turned around and saw the lady still standing there trying to speak to me. I promise you lord, it was the language barrier that made me ignore her. Also it was cold. Also I had already freed her from the cage, and now you expect me to do more? This is how Jesus must have felt when he learned that he was to die on the cross for everyone’s sins, after all he’s done, the philanthropist that he was!
	Am I comparing myself to JC himself? No, just saying that I get it man. I get it.