“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”
~Bishop Desmond Tutu
This past Friday night, I was relaxing at home on the couch, flipping through the channels when I saw “What Would You Do?” on ABC Primetime. It’s an ethical dilemma show that uses actors to test unknowing participants with a variety of situations to see how they would react. Would they ignore the person in need and sit idly by or would they speak up and do something? I’ve only seen the show a handful of times and every time I watch it, I’m simply stunned at the amount of apathetic (or even downright horribly mean and racist) people in our country. But there are some people who do the right thing. And sometimes the reactions of those who do end up doing something can be funny or heartwarming or even heroic. This show is a reminder to us all that we are on this earth together, as human beings, and we should never, ever think twice about helping someone in need.
On Friday’s episode, a particular segment made me so emotional, that even talking about it two days later with my mother, made me choke up again. I plan on showing the clip to my First Aid and CPR class tonight, because I think it’s not only relevant to my class, but important for all people to see.
In the clip below, the show asks the question of what would you do if someone suddenly collapsed on the sidewalk? At first, the actor who collapses is a well-dressed woman and immediately, people stop to help her when she collapses. But then they try something different. What would people do if the person who collapses is a homeless man? Now all of the sudden, people are less inclined to help out. What if the homeless person was holding a beer can when he collapses? Amazingly nearly 90 people walk by without giving this man a second glance. A man who, for all they know, is lying there dying. As upset as I was watching this, I was no where near prepared for what I was about to see.
An older woman, hobbling with a cane and possibly homeless herself, stops to see if he is ok. She sees he is clearly unconscious. She asks passerby after passerby to call 911 and no one stops to do so. They all ignore her pleas for help. She is trying to help a man she does not know and after the umpteenth person ignores her, she looks to the sky and curses God. Finally, after what seemed like forever, a woman stops and calls 911. Not only do these people on the streets of Newark ignore the “homeless” man lying motionless on the sidewalk, but they ignore the woman asking for help. No one had the decency to even call 911. This segment made me so emotional, mere words cannot express my anger and sadness.
What if that man were you? Or your father or brother or uncle? What if he were a veteran? One that came back from the hell of war, to the country he gave so much to, expecting to be greeted with open arms and appreciation but instead got the cold shoulder and ended up on the streets, all alone. Like so many others.
All human beings, no matter their gender, race, religion, age, sexual orientation, or station in life, deserve to be treated humanely and with dignity. Everyone on this earth feels pain and heartache and suffering. Joy and sorrow. We all laugh and cry and, at some point in our lives, we all feel down on our luck, sometimes desperate. If we’re lucky, we rebound. If we’re lucky, we find something or someone worth fighting for. Do we all not want the same things in life? Happiness? To love and to be loved? Peace and kindness between all of mankind?
“I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.” ~Elie Wiesel
In law school, I learned of a woman named Kitty Genovese, a 28 year old New Yorker who was stabbed repeatedly outside of her apartment building. There were thirty eight witnesses and no one did anything to help her as she was brutally murdered. No one called the police until it was too late. Psychologists call the phenomenon the “Bystander Effect” or “responsibility diffusion.” I call it bullshit. It takes a truly courageous person to confront an attacker with a weapon to help someone else. But it doesn’t take courage to call the police, only a desire to help someone. They could have shouted, they could have approached the attacker as a group, they could have done something, anything. Instead they ignored Kitty’s screams and she was murdered.
In the same episode of Friday’s “What Would You Do?” but a different segment, a man (who stood up for a gay couple and their children eating at a restaurant after the waiter was repeatedly cruel to them) said that the reason he said something was because his parents were Holocaust survivors. He said his parents had to endure the hell they went through because no one stood up and said “this is wrong.” No one did anything until it was too late and millions of people were murdered. He’s right. There were people in power who knew what Hitler was planning. But they did nothing, they said nothing. They were afraid or they were apathetic or they were unsure. But they did nothing and millions died because of their silence.
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” ~Gandhi
Although it is always easier to give up when things get difficult or seem impossible and although it is easier to turn a blind eye to all the cruelty in the world, in the end, I will always choose to believe in the simple goodness of man. Like Anne Frank, I believe, despite everything, that all people are really good at heart. I believe that all humans have the capacity for decency and unconditional kindness. I refuse to accept that as humans, we cannot open our eyes and our hearts to someone in need. I know for a fact that there are people out there willing to stand up for others and what is right and what is fair and what is good. No matter what the cost. I know it because people write books and songs and poetry and make movies about the triumph of the human spirit. About how lives were changed because of the goodness of others. They can envision beauty and compassion in mankind because they have experienced it at some point in their lives. Something so wonderful touched them that they were compelled to tell the world. Even a simple smile has the power to save a life. The best part about it all, is that we each, individually, have the choice. We can choose to make a difference, no matter how small, in the life of another. We have a voice and we have a choice. We mustn’t ever forget that.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank
