The Dangers of Indifference

Hey everybody, I hate to start on a negative note, but I just have to say this considering recent events:

            A twenty-eight year-old woman was stabbed to death and a seven year-old girl was sexually assaulted and strangled.  Two lives, gone, obliterated, in a half hour.  Do you know what’s the worst part of this?  That people watched, listened, and knew what was going on, but did nothing to stop it.  Those are just two examples where people are indifferent to the issue of another human being’s life.  During an emergency situation, the response needed does not occur, causing the loss of human life.  We are monsters because of our indifference towards the safety or life of others; furthermore, that indifference causes completely innocent people to die.  Being indifferent to people’s suffering is similar to being a New York Firefighter who decided to take the day off when the Twin Towers fell, simply because you "didn't feel like working" that day.

            Believe it or not, just caring enough to take action can save somebody’s life. Kitty Genovese, who was stabbed to death in an attack that lasted half an hour, would be alive if one of the nearly forty neighbors who overheard the attack on her would have chosen not to disregard her screams for help.  In fact, one neighbor did call 911.  After the brutal attack on twenty-eight year-old Kitty Genovese was over; after she was dead (Terry 1). Why didn’t that neighbor call in the thirty minutes during which she heard Kitty Genovese scream for her life? Sherrice Iverson was strangled, sexually assaulted, and her body was abandoned in a toilet. Yet Mr. Cash, a college student and friend of the attacker, saw what was happening and chose not to intervene during the attack on the defenseless young girl.  Sherrice Iverson would have lived if he had intervened. Instead, she died at the age of seven (Long 1). On a world-renown scale, during World War II, the United States sent a ship containing thousands of refugees from Germany, back to a German concentration camp after they reached American soil (Wiesel 3).  We sent thousands of people to their slow, torturous death after they thought they’d escaped it. President Roosevelt was attempting to prevent our involvement and immigrants from entering the nation; unfortunately, that caused harm to thousands of people, and pain to their loved ones that survived. On a more current and recent note, when even one person's reaction to a school shooting is "Oh (insert name here) had to have done it", that shows that people knew that person was mentally unstable and a possible danger, but did nothing to stop it. When twenty six young lives are ended because of that, when it could have been prevented, there is something wrong. By doing something as simple as picking up a phone and dialing a three digit number, you can save somebody’s life. One decision can save a life, or many. You can prevent people from enduring unbelievable pain and suffering.  You just have to stop being indifferent to what happens to them.

            Even the smallest of things can change, or save, somebody’s life.  One of my friends has been depressed and suicidal at times, for the past five years.  This past year he’s had considerable issues dealing with his depression, as a result of people not caring for him. You know what he says kept him from ending his life, at only fifteen? The fact that one person cared enough to talk to and listen to him. That person was me.  All I had to do was talk to him and give him somebody to speak to when he was having a hard time. I was that one person he could always call, and I made sure he knew it. How difficult is it to listen to somebody when you know they need it? Furthermore, the majority of people who commit suicide do so because they feel nobody cares if they die; however, you could be that one person who they know cares. World War II victims of concentration camps stated that the only excuse for the fact that they weren’t being saved was that nobody must know (Wiesel 3).  The entire world knew.  The same thing occurred during the genocide of millions of Africans during multiple revolts, such as in Rwanda. Just imagine how betrayed those victims felt that millions of people knew what they were going through but weren’t doing anything about it.  What if you knew that you could save somebody’s life just by talking to them?  Or by picking up a phone?  Well, you can.  So don’t be like Mr. Cash or Mrs. Genovese’s neighbors. Be somebody’s Superman.  Be their hero.

            You may think “Oh gosh, that’s horrible, how could they do such a thing”.  Kitty Genovese’s neighbors didn’t call because they figured that one of the other thirty seven neighbors had already done so.  They followed the crowd, but doing so caused somebody to die slowly and painfully.  Her neighbors also said that they didn’t want to put themselves in danger (Terry 1).  They were safely in their apartments, with a phone right there. They wouldn’t have been in danger by picking up the phone, the attacker wouldn’t have even known if they had.  Another excuse that somebody may have is “I’m not going to get upset over somebody else’s life. I just worry about myself first”, as Mr. Cash, the only witness to the attack on Sherrice Iverson, said. He didn’t even call 911; he left the bathroom until the attacker was done (Long 1). That’s purely selfish, especially since the life in question was a defenseless, seven year-old girl’s that was in danger at the hands of a much older man. He’s just as guilty as her killer. People have multiple excuses for not acting, for being indifferent, but the fact is that they’re just excuses.

Would you have picked up the phone and called 911 if you were one of Ms. Genovese’s neighbors?  Or would you have thought “oh somebody else must have called by now”?  If you can put yourself in that scenario, ignoring the fact that you know what the outcome was, and say that you would call, I applaud you.  If not, then I beg you to put forward that little bit of effort to do something if the situation arises.  Everybody has seen a kid, or even an adult, being picked on and ignored it. Don’t. Put forth a little bit of effort, and help that person. You never know how much damage your indifference to somebody’s suffering can do.  So why don’t you do it? All I’m asking is for you to make a miniscule amount of effort to aid somebody in pain.  By doing the smallest of things, you really can make a difference. You only have to stop being indifferent.