Seven years ago, a man was beaten to death in broad daylight in the street. Not one person helped him, not one person called the police or lifted a finger to help him.
A 15 year old girl was standing on the corner waiting for her bus with her friends, talking and laughing and planning what to wear to a school dance and excited about getting her drivers license.
In the next instance she was shot down by someone in a car. Dead. The shooter never caught, no arrest ever made. No one even attempted to take a license plate number or follow the vehicle.
A man was walking down the a street full of businessmen on his way to work one morning. Out of no where a man began to stab him over and over again and then ran. He lay in the street and bled to death. Not one person attempted to help him, or take down the man stabbing him. People continued to walk by....un-bothered by the situation as if they see it every single day.
A collage student was attacked by 6 men a few months ago and brutally raped.....again.....no one helped her.
Kitty Genovese, was stabbed and killed near her home in New York. The circumstance of her murder and the lack of response from neighbors made the newspapers. It was later stated that this one incorrect information printed by the paper but nonetheless, it sparked an investigation into social psychology known as the by stander effect.
When I think of these situations, I can't help but wonder what could possibly be going through bystanders heads in these situations that they aren't forced to help? What has happened in their hearts that the can only stand there and watch and not help someone be safe from harm? Has our society been programmed to be so selfish and forget about humanity and what it means to LIVE? Do we now take life for granted to the extent that it no longer matters to us as individuals if the person standing next to us is brutally raped, stabbed, murdered etc...
Let me ask you this.....what if it was your daughter, your son, your mother, your father, your brother or your sister? Wouldn't you want....no wouldn't you EXPECT someone to help them? Simply for the fact that we are all *supposed* to be functional, thinking, feeling human beings? Then why would anyone stand by and watch any one of these things happen....would you? What would you do if you were walking down the street and saw this happening to a total stranger? Would you help or would you be apathetic to the situation as well, enabling our society to become uncaring, unthinking, unfeeling, beings.
(Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.
Although the word apathy is derived from the Greek ἀπάθεια (apatheia),[2] it is important not to confuse the two terms. Also meaning "absence of passion," "apathy" or "insensibility" in Greek, the term apatheia was used by the Stoics to signify a (desirable) state of indifference towards events and things which lie outside one's control (that is, according to their philosophy, all things exterior, one being only responsible for his representations and judgments).
We will only make it together in this society if we begin to care for one another and look out for one another in times of duress much like our government does for other countries in times like the tsunami in Japan. We have to do that for one another as people.
I challenge you all...I challenge everyone who ever reads this to help one person you don't know once a day for one month. I also challenge you to start saying hello to people you pass in the store, and say it with a smile, like you mean it. For those who are apathetic maybe...just maybe this will bring some feeling back into your hearts and souls. For those who aren't apathetic, maybe this will remind you that life is about love and friendship and helping each other make it instead of the same zombie type routine we all go through day to day. Perhaps next time something bad is happening to someone, you will visualize it being your mother or father. If it was your child....what do you hope the person standing next to them is like on the inside????
~~Cari~~
A 15 year old girl was standing on the corner waiting for her bus with her friends, talking and laughing and planning what to wear to a school dance and excited about getting her drivers license.
In the next instance she was shot down by someone in a car. Dead. The shooter never caught, no arrest ever made. No one even attempted to take a license plate number or follow the vehicle.
A man was walking down the a street full of businessmen on his way to work one morning. Out of no where a man began to stab him over and over again and then ran. He lay in the street and bled to death. Not one person attempted to help him, or take down the man stabbing him. People continued to walk by....un-bothered by the situation as if they see it every single day.
A collage student was attacked by 6 men a few months ago and brutally raped.....again.....no one helped her.
Kitty Genovese, was stabbed and killed near her home in New York. The circumstance of her murder and the lack of response from neighbors made the newspapers. It was later stated that this one incorrect information printed by the paper but nonetheless, it sparked an investigation into social psychology known as the by stander effect.
When I think of these situations, I can't help but wonder what could possibly be going through bystanders heads in these situations that they aren't forced to help? What has happened in their hearts that the can only stand there and watch and not help someone be safe from harm? Has our society been programmed to be so selfish and forget about humanity and what it means to LIVE? Do we now take life for granted to the extent that it no longer matters to us as individuals if the person standing next to us is brutally raped, stabbed, murdered etc...
Let me ask you this.....what if it was your daughter, your son, your mother, your father, your brother or your sister? Wouldn't you want....no wouldn't you EXPECT someone to help them? Simply for the fact that we are all *supposed* to be functional, thinking, feeling human beings? Then why would anyone stand by and watch any one of these things happen....would you? What would you do if you were walking down the street and saw this happening to a total stranger? Would you help or would you be apathetic to the situation as well, enabling our society to become uncaring, unthinking, unfeeling, beings.
(Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.
Although the word apathy is derived from the Greek ἀπάθεια (apatheia),[2] it is important not to confuse the two terms. Also meaning "absence of passion," "apathy" or "insensibility" in Greek, the term apatheia was used by the Stoics to signify a (desirable) state of indifference towards events and things which lie outside one's control (that is, according to their philosophy, all things exterior, one being only responsible for his representations and judgments).
We will only make it together in this society if we begin to care for one another and look out for one another in times of duress much like our government does for other countries in times like the tsunami in Japan. We have to do that for one another as people.
I challenge you all...I challenge everyone who ever reads this to help one person you don't know once a day for one month. I also challenge you to start saying hello to people you pass in the store, and say it with a smile, like you mean it. For those who are apathetic maybe...just maybe this will bring some feeling back into your hearts and souls. For those who aren't apathetic, maybe this will remind you that life is about love and friendship and helping each other make it instead of the same zombie type routine we all go through day to day. Perhaps next time something bad is happening to someone, you will visualize it being your mother or father. If it was your child....what do you hope the person standing next to them is like on the inside????
~~Cari~~
