It's Time to get Nosey!

Sometimes you have to appreciate a neighbor who doesn’t ignore what is going on in the house next to him. Charles Ramsey, the man who helped three women and a small child escape from a Cleveland basement where they had been held captive for ten years, did not ignore a woman’s cry for help. He heard her screaming, and he ran to assist her. In fact, he put himself potentially in danger to help Amanda Barry and her daughter (and eventually the other two women) leave their captors. Charles Ramsey is a brave individual who got nosey, and I appreciate him for it.

Sure, we have all been taught to mind our own business or to stop staring or to stop eavesdropping. In general, that is some serious mannerly advice. It is when we take it to the extreme that we create problems. It is when we ignore the woman being raped in the middle of a crowded party, the woman being physically assaulted in a parking lot, or the women being held captive in a basement that WE HAVE A PROBLEM. These things are happening right in front of our eyes, yet we do nothing. We assume that people can help themselves. That they can pick themselves up by their boot straps. We believe that anyone can escape a horrible situation on their own, because we are all INDEPENDENT AMERICANS. 

It’s that kind of mentality (along with several others) that allows this crap to keep happening. SO maybe we should think differently. Maybe we should safely create an interruption. Maybe we should ask the woman next to us if she needs help after her boyfriend threatens her in a coffee shop. Maybe we should call 911 when we see, or hear, or suspect a woman is being assaulted. Maybe we should scream really loudly when we see something happening right in front of us. Do SOMETHING. (For more ideas click here.) We owe that to one another as fellow human beings. 

Have you ever created an interruption? What made you want to take action as a bystander? 

-          Lauren, who is not ignoring things anymore