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
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