realthog

The insidiousness of apathy...what I refer to as the sin of omission. Not taking action. Believing that the fight is not ours but someone else's. Reminds me of the Kitty Genovese case in New York back in the early sixties, the one that spawned social psychology. I know you must be familiar with the case, P, but allow me to recap anyway: In the early sixties a woman was repeatedly stabbed and ultimately murdered by a male assailant in plain view of everyone who lived in the same apartment complex as she, but no one attempted to save her or call the police. When questioned later by authorities as to why no one bothered to intervene, the unanimous reply was the witnesses thought someone else would eventually call the police, further commenting they really didn't want to get involved, as they feared for their lives, or feared embarrassment and/or social ostracism.

In short, they didn't want to draw attention to themselves -- a common human sentiment.

Again: there are times when we must risk being hated or drawing unwanted attention...