I should call this blog the WTF page, because it is usually those '"What the fuck?" moments in life that cause me to write here. Here's the latest.
Last Wednesday (18APR2012) at the dojo (http://aikidoarnisoffarmville.blogspot.com/) a few of us started talking after class. Kitty Genovese was brought up. For those of you unfamiliar with her, Catherine Genovese was a young woman who was murdered on 13MAR1964, just outside her Kew Gardens apartment in New York city. You can Google her name to get all the details, but I'll relate some here. 38 (that's thirty-eight) people watched her get stabbed repeatedly. Her attacker left three times, only to come back each time and stab her some more, over a period of roughly thirty minutes. No one helped an attractive and helpless young woman as she screamed and plead and died. Instead, they watched.
Some of you may remember this more recent incident from the news. On 27OCT2009 a fifteen year old girl was leaving her homecoming dance at 21:30 (that's 9:30 PM to those of you with no military background) in Richmond, California, when she was attacked and gang raped for over two and a half hours. You can find a piece of the story at http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7084114 (and I know shouldn't be surprised by how many gang-rape porn sites were brought up as I tried to search for this through supposedly legit news sources but somehow I was, go figure). The onlookers not only did not help, they laughed and cheered the attackers on. Some joined in. Others took photos and video.
Here's another one from the news. On 16NOV2010 Bill Nye ("Bill Nye the Science Guy," for those of you with kids and the Disney channel) was giving a lecture at USC (that's the University of Southern California) when he collapsed. The audience did nothing to help. Instead, they pulled out their phones and started tweeting and taking video. Check YouTube if you are morbid enough, the videos are still there.
In my experience, almost everyone has a comic book inside their head. In it they are the superhero and live a life of adventure and adversity. This is not reality, it is a coping mechanism because the world is not the fairy-tale spongecake fantasy you were fed as a child. In reality, there are no superheroes, just ordinary mortals who are typically apathetic, criminal, or ruled by their fears.
In truth, people are alot like teapots: the closer you inspect them, the more cracks you can see in the glaze.
This is the part where those who know me would expect me to start displaying my admittedly abundant knowledge of profanity--fuck this, that, and the other, and so on. Honestly, I just don't have the space here to put all that down, so let's pretend I did and move on.)
There is no excuse for the behavior these people displayed. Or for anyone on the planet. If you feel even the slightest outrage, that shows you have a little humanity left, especially if you have ever stopped to help someone in need. I know I have, and way more than once. If this post makes you think of a moment in your past when you should have made a 911 call, or pulled over to help the accident victims of the crash you just witnessed, or turned the TV up so you wouldn't hear the sounds of the guy next door beating the shit out of his wife and kids, I hope the shame haunts you forever. As for the people above and anyone else who responds in their kind of fashion, I hope that your time in Hell is a reflection of the torment you witnessed but did nothing about.
I have a thing for that kind of irony.
Anyway, time to get to the point. There is probably not going to be any help for you when you get into trouble. If you cannot rely on yourself, if you have not made some kind of attempt to prepare yourself for the inevitable time that something bad will happen to you, you will end up like Kitty Genovese, or the 15 year old girl, or worse. Buy a gun and learn to use it--especially if you are a woman. Learn the basics of first-aid and self-defense. Learn to be aware of your environment. Keep a first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher in your home. But don't expect help, because there is no cavalry, no knight in shining armor, or guy in a cape and long blue underwear coming to your aid. Just a bunch of dipshits with camera phones and YouTube accounts.
Unless you'd like to get off your ass and show the other monkeys what they should be doing, get used to this idea: you are on your own.
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