On a lonely street, there's a van with tinted windows, from which emerge heart wrenching screams, and yet most of the people who pass by, continue to walk on.
A man lies bleeding on the road, about 1 km from a hospital, begging for help. Yet, no one wants to take him, nor call an ambulance.
The ones who silently watch this happen are even worse than the perpetrators. Because they know that something unjust and traumatic is occurring before their eyes, and they don't think that it is their responsibility to offer help, to call the police, or call an ambulance. Is this what we have come to? We don't have the courage, or rather the humanity, to step forward and help someone in dire need? Be it, a child lost, wandering and crying in a mall or a young girl just wanting to go home in peace. By not helping, we are destroying ourselves, knowing that we might have been able to do something. Knowing that it could happen to someone we know, that it could happen to us. It's the easy way out, looking away. By pretending that it isn't happening, we block it out, shut it out, lock the memory and throw away the key. But living under pretence has helped nobody. Because, at the end of the day, we are the ones who have to live with ourselves. No one should have to live with guilt weighing down on their conscience. Take a step forward, speak up, help. Not just to save somebody else, but even yourself. All of us seek some sort of redemption. And instead of searching for it elsewhere, we have to find it in ourselves. It's never too late to make that change.
We do such a good job of rationalizing our indifference rather than recognize it as lost humanity. There is always somewhere to get to, some stress to handle and if all else fails, the system to blame. We then hypocritically and vociferously criticize, condemn and raise our voices in horror over a drink in the comfort of our living rooms, little realizing that the outrage is directed at our own behaviour
ReplyDeleteI wholly agree with the previous comment. Very few want to even explore the idea that the problem might well lie within us. But we always look around us, ever so ready to pin the blame on someone other than ourselves. And how long do we think about these stories? we talk for a while, express our outrage and move on. How many of us actually stop and help the next time something like this happens in front of us? At such time people find it so easy to make excuses for their behaviors, for not helping. This basic inability to empathize is what is lacking in people all over the globe.
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