A few weeks ago, I wrote of the heroes on flight 93 and asked what would happen today. Would we storm the cockpit?
Last week, a woman was raped on a train in Philadelphia. She was in plain view of a number of passengers during the rape. In fact, a number of them “Videoed the incident on their cell phones.” But no one came to her aid. No one even called 911. Police are investigating, not only the rapist, who is in jail, but also those who “stood by.”
Frankly as I write this, I am getting sick to my stomach. What kind of people were they? They didn’t even dial 911 or hit the emergency call box in the train. They did nothing.
Was there no one to say “Let’s stop this.” Or “Hey you, stop it”, or “Come on, Let’s get this guy.” Oh please. We aren’t talking terrorists or certain death here. We are talking about a lone rapist accosting a woman.
Unfortunately, this type of thing happens more and more. From my earlier blog:
What has the last 20 years done to us. Somehow we came to tolerate death and destruction. People are killed daily in our cities and we do nothing. We celebrate the criminals that take innocent lives and release them to kill again. We accept horrors with a shrug and cower in our living rooms behind smart phones and tv screens. We demand others sacrifice as we hide in fear from an endemic virus. All for our own comfort.
If that is what we have become, then when we ask the question that began this piece, the answer must be a resounding and sniveling NO!
We can only pray that when the moment arrives, we will have the strength to join Todd Beamer and storm that cockpit. If not, all is lost.
Well – I guess, last week in Philly, we got our answer.
JVH
3 Responses
This is heart breaking JVH. I think the culture of fear is pervasive, insidious and paralyzing and it leads to either pointing fingers, attacking, canceling or doing nothing. Thus, it leads to evil.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
Sincerely, Astrid Ambroziak
I saw this article when it came out. It is almost impossible to believe this happened and no one helped. If you are capable of holding up a cell phone you are capable of calling for help and probably standing up and physically doing something to help. So these people on the train who where hiding behind their seat are the generation that are about to or are giving birth and raising the next generation of ……… The reason I put the dots is there is no word available to describe them. It’s gong to get worse.
There is a bigger issue here but not for this blog.
Just horrendous, it sounds like a really bad movie plot. Its impossible to imagine that no one did anything, even in today’s world this is simply outrageous.