It has been a long time since my last post and it is time to stop talking about the ill things that are happening in Washington DC. It's time to look other things, things closer to home. The most recent news item of note on my outrage meter is the vicious gang rape, robbery, and beating of a 15 year old girl in Richmond, CA during a homecoming dance at Richmond High School. The story links here.
Richmond is less than 15 miles from my hometown of Oakland, CA and the tragic story has reached national headlines because of the fact that there were up to 10 alleged perpetuators and many more witnesses that stood there and did nothing. No one called 911, no one broke up this terrible attack that lasted over two hours, and in those moments no one appeared to care or at least didn't care enough to help this young girl who seemingly was targeted by predators.
Over a week later, the blame game is being played. While we can talk about the police/security or the lack of them or the fact that there were people outside of the dance were hanging out and not in parity in age to the high school attendees of the party. I blame the witnesses that stood and did nothing. I blame them for allowing this to continue.
This story, this crime is tragic in so many ways. It is another reminder of the escalating brutality of crime and also the fall of common decency and morality. I don't know this young woman but it hurts as if I did. I say this as a brother to my sister and as a son to my mother, and I would hope if it was my sister or mother, someone would have had the courage and common decency to have stopped it. I am not sure if we all are being isolated by computers and social networks, or video games, or that the beliefs between right and wrong have been buried so far that we have stopped caring.
I don't know what is happening to our young men either. I know that they have examples like Chris Brown to look at and see that there is little punishment for a man to put his hands on a woman. The fact that in this crime that these men and boys took and pictures and sent text messages makes this even worse. The nonchalant attitude was taken that what they were doing was okay with no sense of what they were doing was wrong, horribly wrong. The fact that this crowd was organized and grew in just a matter of minutes with no thought of the consequences of this young woman. Now she faces a lifetime of memories and pain that I cannot imagine or even try to put into words.
Then again, there has been a chain of tragedies and way too many to count and list here. Countless crimes, mostly murders have happened while onlookers haven't lifted a finger. Teens in Chicago are being killed and a high rate due to gang activity just walking to and from school. These things are happening in large cities and in small towns and I am not sure if the reporting is getting better or if the criminals and the crimes are getting worse. The news now is more sickening more than ever. Is this the new normal that all we care about is ourselves that we (most of us) are willing to stand and do nothing I am not asking for overwhelming bravery but an anonymous phone call to the police or something.
All of this brings me to a quote by Edmund Burke, a British philosopher, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Burke's words are over 200 years old but are still relevant and perhaps even more important today. What has happened to good people? What has happened to us? These horrific actions only happen when others (we) fail to stand. The shaking heads of disgust are no longer enough. The people, the good people, you and me must stand and do something.
I am looking forward to these predators day in court and hope that they all find themselves beneath prison walls. It also wouldn't hurt if they got a taste of their own medicine. It is only said that their punishment will not undo the pain that they have done.
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