Rights & Responsibility
I was recently reading an article about a teen to got ganged up on and then stabbed to death ( link here). The article concludes with a quote from an old lady. Her theory, everyone is scared.
"An elderly woman who refused to give her name had another theory. 'We have to live here - that's why nobody ever sees anything.... No one wants to get shot for something they weren't part of,' she said. 'And people may not understand that, but it's because they don't live here.'"
Now I grew up in a neighbourhood with a high density, and lots of immigration (read:not white). This essentially ment it had a bad reputation. Fights and stabbing were not unheard of. Shootings, despite the reputation, never occurred (at least in the 13 years I lived there after getting to canada). But a lot of the same mentality went on. You didn't get involved, it wasn't your business. The main reason was the same reason the old lady stated, fear.
Frankly it's a lot of garage.
It's the same thing as what happened in Germany in World War 2. As one group after another was slowly taken, other groups remained silent for fear of something bad happening to them. In that case they were probably right, but in the end, it cost them their lives anyway. I'm sure some of you read that famous quote from a pastor/priest (to paraphrase badly:when they came for the jews, homosexuals, black I did not speak up, so when they came for me, there was no one there to speak for me)
It's the idea of Responsibility.
In modern society, we like to make sure we get our "rights". We make sure of this. We will fight to the death for "our rights".
[Aside: I had an argument once with a dog owner who, when told to keep the lease of his dog shorter (he had an unending leash with his dog 20 feet away in a park where a bunch of us were running hard) started yelling about his "rights". He had a relatively small dog, on a very thin, black leash, that was stretched out 20 feet. Nearly impossible to see in the twilight. To prevent trouble, I ask if he could keep his leash shorter, because frankly if a bunch of track runner ran into the leash, it would be the dog that would be hurt, not us. I was appealling to his sense of caring for his dog. Of course he screams "my right" over and over. He seemed to care more about rights, then his dog's health.]
And frankly in that neighbourhood, just like mine, responsibility has to come in. Are they saying that not one person could make an anonymous call to the police? The reason these problems keep occurring is because no one wants to speak up.
Sure they are not obligated to do anything. But frankly, if one of these people gets attacked in the future by these same assilants, they had contributed to their own demise.
Ultimately, what if that had been their own son? Or even if that had been them? If that man that didn't do anything, ended up finding out it was his brother's son (hypothetically)... what would he say to his brother?
"It wasn't my business?"
Please. It's all our business. Take your responsibility.
"An elderly woman who refused to give her name had another theory. 'We have to live here - that's why nobody ever sees anything.... No one wants to get shot for something they weren't part of,' she said. 'And people may not understand that, but it's because they don't live here.'"
Now I grew up in a neighbourhood with a high density, and lots of immigration (read:not white). This essentially ment it had a bad reputation. Fights and stabbing were not unheard of. Shootings, despite the reputation, never occurred (at least in the 13 years I lived there after getting to canada). But a lot of the same mentality went on. You didn't get involved, it wasn't your business. The main reason was the same reason the old lady stated, fear.
Frankly it's a lot of garage.
It's the same thing as what happened in Germany in World War 2. As one group after another was slowly taken, other groups remained silent for fear of something bad happening to them. In that case they were probably right, but in the end, it cost them their lives anyway. I'm sure some of you read that famous quote from a pastor/priest (to paraphrase badly:when they came for the jews, homosexuals, black I did not speak up, so when they came for me, there was no one there to speak for me)
It's the idea of Responsibility.
In modern society, we like to make sure we get our "rights". We make sure of this. We will fight to the death for "our rights".
[Aside: I had an argument once with a dog owner who, when told to keep the lease of his dog shorter (he had an unending leash with his dog 20 feet away in a park where a bunch of us were running hard) started yelling about his "rights". He had a relatively small dog, on a very thin, black leash, that was stretched out 20 feet. Nearly impossible to see in the twilight. To prevent trouble, I ask if he could keep his leash shorter, because frankly if a bunch of track runner ran into the leash, it would be the dog that would be hurt, not us. I was appealling to his sense of caring for his dog. Of course he screams "my right" over and over. He seemed to care more about rights, then his dog's health.]
And frankly in that neighbourhood, just like mine, responsibility has to come in. Are they saying that not one person could make an anonymous call to the police? The reason these problems keep occurring is because no one wants to speak up.
Sure they are not obligated to do anything. But frankly, if one of these people gets attacked in the future by these same assilants, they had contributed to their own demise.
Ultimately, what if that had been their own son? Or even if that had been them? If that man that didn't do anything, ended up finding out it was his brother's son (hypothetically)... what would he say to his brother?
"It wasn't my business?"
Please. It's all our business. Take your responsibility.
posted by Selam at 4:25 p.m.
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