Dead Horse
07-29-2005, 09:52 AM
By Brian McGrory, Boston Globe Columnist | July 29, 2005
Good and evil collided this week on a blazing hot morning on the side of a well-traveled road in the outskirts of the bucolic town of Duxbury. And this wasn't a collision in the merely metaphorical sense.
Evil came in the form of Robert J. Parsons. He's 44 years old, an unemployed laborer with 211 entries on a criminal record that dates to 1978. He has a driving record the size of a computer manual, and his license is currently suspended.
He is supposedly a recovering heroin addict with what his sister described to the Globe's John Ellement as a ''heart of gold." Feel free to roll your eyes. They all have a heart of gold when they're not ripping people off and putting lives at risk by getting behind the wheel of a car.
Which is exactly where he was Wednesday morning, even though he wasn't legally allowed. But Robert J. Parsons never let a small matter like the law get in his way.
Good came in the form of Shawn Fields-Berry. He's 45 years old, with a doctorate from Harvard Medical School, where he manages a genetics laboratory. He's married to his college sweetheart from Ohio State.
He's a devotee of yoga and a regular weight lifter who keeps himself in premium shape. A few years ago, he began participating in AIDS rides from New York to Boston. He raised huge amounts of cash and endless awareness. He was already the leading fund-raiser in this year's 175-mile Massachusetts Red Ribbon Ride from Pittsfield to Weston, scheduled for Aug. 13-14.
He loved being on a bike. Which is where he was Wednesday morning, on a 75-mile training ride before work. As Fields-Berry pedaled along a stretch of Route 3A, Parsons slammed into him with a car he wasn't supposed to drive.
The bike was broken into pieces. Fields-Berry was knocked unconscious. His face was smashed, his shoulder fractured, his ribs broken, his right lung punctured. A helicopter was summoned to the scene and took him to Mass. General Hospital.
Yesterday morning, I talked to Debbie Fields-Berry as she drove to the hospital from her East Bridgewater home. Her husband had regained consciousness a short time before, and she was ticking off the good news: no apparent brain damage, no spinal injury.
''We're tickled pink that things are going as well as they're going," she said, adding later, ''It's just a miracle that the helmet did what it was supposed to do."
When I asked why her husband rides, she spoke of a close family friend and spiritual adviser who died eight years ago of AIDS. ''It was absolutely devastating," she said. ''It was really rough on all of us, and this is Shawn's way of dealing with that."
At the Red Ribbon office, ride manager Andi Genser said Fields-Berry isn't any run-of-the-mill rider. He helped the group make a safety video. He has raised the most money. He's a team captain, described by friends as charismatic and funny. ''He's a wonderful man, warm and caring, and very committed to the cause," she said.
On Fields-Berry's own page, at www.massredribbonride.org, he explains why he takes part: ''Because riding saves countless lives. Riding means hope to those living with HIV/AIDS. Riding remembers those we have lost to this disease. Riding raises awareness and helps prevent new infections. Riding brings us closer to a cure and a vaccine."
He adds, ''I ride because I can and because I feel a moral obligation to do what I can to fight the pandemic."
Parsons can be found on a website as well. It's www.massmostwanted.org, where his image was captured by a security camera during a two-bit theft from a Braintree CVS. It's impossible to think how two men could be any more different. As Debbie Fields-Berry said, ''The contrast is shocking."
If there's justice in this world, Parsons gets sent to prison and Fields-Berry walks out of the hospital on his way to a full recovery. The headline should read that good survives evil one more time.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.
Good and evil collided this week on a blazing hot morning on the side of a well-traveled road in the outskirts of the bucolic town of Duxbury. And this wasn't a collision in the merely metaphorical sense.
Evil came in the form of Robert J. Parsons. He's 44 years old, an unemployed laborer with 211 entries on a criminal record that dates to 1978. He has a driving record the size of a computer manual, and his license is currently suspended.
He is supposedly a recovering heroin addict with what his sister described to the Globe's John Ellement as a ''heart of gold." Feel free to roll your eyes. They all have a heart of gold when they're not ripping people off and putting lives at risk by getting behind the wheel of a car.
Which is exactly where he was Wednesday morning, even though he wasn't legally allowed. But Robert J. Parsons never let a small matter like the law get in his way.
Good came in the form of Shawn Fields-Berry. He's 45 years old, with a doctorate from Harvard Medical School, where he manages a genetics laboratory. He's married to his college sweetheart from Ohio State.
He's a devotee of yoga and a regular weight lifter who keeps himself in premium shape. A few years ago, he began participating in AIDS rides from New York to Boston. He raised huge amounts of cash and endless awareness. He was already the leading fund-raiser in this year's 175-mile Massachusetts Red Ribbon Ride from Pittsfield to Weston, scheduled for Aug. 13-14.
He loved being on a bike. Which is where he was Wednesday morning, on a 75-mile training ride before work. As Fields-Berry pedaled along a stretch of Route 3A, Parsons slammed into him with a car he wasn't supposed to drive.
The bike was broken into pieces. Fields-Berry was knocked unconscious. His face was smashed, his shoulder fractured, his ribs broken, his right lung punctured. A helicopter was summoned to the scene and took him to Mass. General Hospital.
Yesterday morning, I talked to Debbie Fields-Berry as she drove to the hospital from her East Bridgewater home. Her husband had regained consciousness a short time before, and she was ticking off the good news: no apparent brain damage, no spinal injury.
''We're tickled pink that things are going as well as they're going," she said, adding later, ''It's just a miracle that the helmet did what it was supposed to do."
When I asked why her husband rides, she spoke of a close family friend and spiritual adviser who died eight years ago of AIDS. ''It was absolutely devastating," she said. ''It was really rough on all of us, and this is Shawn's way of dealing with that."
At the Red Ribbon office, ride manager Andi Genser said Fields-Berry isn't any run-of-the-mill rider. He helped the group make a safety video. He has raised the most money. He's a team captain, described by friends as charismatic and funny. ''He's a wonderful man, warm and caring, and very committed to the cause," she said.
On Fields-Berry's own page, at www.massredribbonride.org, he explains why he takes part: ''Because riding saves countless lives. Riding means hope to those living with HIV/AIDS. Riding remembers those we have lost to this disease. Riding raises awareness and helps prevent new infections. Riding brings us closer to a cure and a vaccine."
He adds, ''I ride because I can and because I feel a moral obligation to do what I can to fight the pandemic."
Parsons can be found on a website as well. It's www.massmostwanted.org, where his image was captured by a security camera during a two-bit theft from a Braintree CVS. It's impossible to think how two men could be any more different. As Debbie Fields-Berry said, ''The contrast is shocking."
If there's justice in this world, Parsons gets sent to prison and Fields-Berry walks out of the hospital on his way to a full recovery. The headline should read that good survives evil one more time.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.