On not minding your own business
I'm sure the recent story about 91-year-old WWII vet Leonard Sims being savagely beaten while up to five people just looked on will be taken as more evidence that the world is headed to hell in a handbasket.
As if this is something new. Decades ago, Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City and none of the dozens of people who witnessed at least part of the attack never thought of calling the cops. Or, if they thought of calling , ultimately decided against it. They didn't want to get involved.
But let's face it. The issue came up way back when, right about the time God asked Cain where Abel was and the world's first murderer responded with the rhetorical question, "Am I my brother's keeper?''
The question is so stupid, the answer so self-evident, that God doesn't even bother to respond directly to it, but rather confronts Cain with the enormity of his crime.
We are our brother's keeper, even when that brother is a stranger -- maybe especially then.
And we're not all heroes, we're all not even particularly brave -- but for God's sake, a phone call to 911 would not be out of line when your brother or sister is getting waylaid.
Pretending that something is not your business in a case like this is to take the mark of Cain upon yourself as you wonder through a world made more dangerous by your inactivity.
As if this is something new. Decades ago, Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City and none of the dozens of people who witnessed at least part of the attack never thought of calling the cops. Or, if they thought of calling , ultimately decided against it. They didn't want to get involved.
But let's face it. The issue came up way back when, right about the time God asked Cain where Abel was and the world's first murderer responded with the rhetorical question, "Am I my brother's keeper?''
The question is so stupid, the answer so self-evident, that God doesn't even bother to respond directly to it, but rather confronts Cain with the enormity of his crime.
We are our brother's keeper, even when that brother is a stranger -- maybe especially then.
And we're not all heroes, we're all not even particularly brave -- but for God's sake, a phone call to 911 would not be out of line when your brother or sister is getting waylaid.
Pretending that something is not your business in a case like this is to take the mark of Cain upon yourself as you wonder through a world made more dangerous by your inactivity.
posted by Michael Riley at 11:23 AM
2 Comments:
I'd rather make a call to authorities if something suspicious/dangerous going on and be proven wrong later..the Fort Dix Six neighbors in Cherry Hill said they jokingly called one of the homes housing some of these criminals as the "terrorist house" because many out-of-state vehicles with different men were coming and going at all hours of day/night...hellooo..why did it not occur to any of them to pick up a phone and place an anonymous tip at least to dept. Homeland Security, FBI, local police hotlines..we've been told since 9/12/01 to be on alert for suspicious packages, people and/or activities and report to authorities..we become lax and so politically correct and that is when the next 9/11 wil happen on U.S. soil..it happened after the first 1993 attack on World Trade Center and took 8 years for Al Quaeda cells to regroup and plot their next terrorist attack..it's like the wacko neighbor dressed in camouflage and cleaning his guns in his garage all the time and he's not a hunter or a military guy and the neighbors say after he's killed his family and co-workers, yeah, come to think of it he was a bit odd walking around with his AK-47 and night goggles...
This subject (the 90 year old man getting beaten in front of people)was a source of frustration for me. Those people could have gotten in their own cars and beeped the horn like mad to draw attention or make the perpetrator run away. They all could have rushed the guy. Someone could have screamed. Did someone call the police? We all have a responsibility to one another, though I know that legally non of those people get in trouble for their lack of aid.
I hope the man who was beaten is okay. His family must be chilled to the bone that no one helped, and, it's on the internet and television for the world to see.
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