I know it would be impossible to stand around and watch someone be sexually assaulted. I can say that from first hand experience. Once, in a grocery store parking lot I intervened in what a appeared to be a sexual assault. It turned out to be a quarrel between husband and wife and I wound up having them both turn on me, but by that time other passers by had intervened. In the same circumstances, I would do the same thing again.
Anyway, last week in Richmond, California, after a HS Homecoming dance, some young people once again exceeded my disbelief when up to seven young men took part in the gang rape of a 15 year old female who had left the dance and was heading home. And during this heinous crime, at least 20 people of mixed genders watched at least some some part of it and encouraged the attackers. Reportedly, some took pictures and video on their cell phones. Oh, and did I mention that NOT A SINGLE PERSON REPORTED IT TO THE AUTHORITIES?
I thought when I began to write this post that I'd have plenty to say, but I got to this point and I don't know what to say. I know things have changed since I was a young man, but if I think back, this would have been a very bad thing then, too.
I rememebr two girls fighting once outside my HS as my baseball team was walking to get on the bus for an away game. We had to walk right past them to get to the bus and one of the girls had lost her shirt and although her bra was still on, it had done a 180 during combat. I had a long sleeve undershirt on under my uniform, so I handed her my uniform shirt and I got on the bus. And yes, I did take a look before I gave her my shirt. It was alot more normal and innocent than what happened in Richmond.
When we were on our way to the game the coach said to me, "where's your uniform shirt?" He was a man's man; a macho guy. I told him the story and how I had given it to the semi-naked loser of the fight. I thought he would call me a wuss, a pussy, but instead he just patted me on the shoulder and then ran his hand through my hair like Andy of Mayberry used to do to Opie. I know he wasn't happy that I had given my shirt away (I got it back from a very thankful and cute girl the next day at school) but I know he was happy that maybe he had helped to not only develop baseball players, but decent young men, too.
So, how different is Richmond, CA, in 2009 than Dumont, NJ was 39 years earlier? Light years different..... I guess "ratting" someone out is a sign of weakness in Richmond. It's not a situation where kids don't want to get involved, because many of them will brag to their friends that they watched as a felony took place, and a young girl who's only mistake may have been drinking way too much, was badly hurt, both physically and mentally.
What has happened in 39 years? How has, even in a million years, doing the right thing turned into doing nothing?
That is just horrible! It's a sad statement of what is happening to our society. As an aside, DHS' homecoming dance was cancelled due to lack of interest. We had a wonderful spirit week with lots of participation, but the Friday night lights game had a poor showing because of a dreary constant rain, and the cheerleaders did a terrible job promoting and selling tickets to the homecoming dance. That would not have happened 39 years ago -- the Counts would have been playing and the crowd would have been wild!
ReplyDeleteSo we have not come very far from 1964 when people watched Kitty Genovese die right in front of their eyes. The only difference is that while this girl was being raped, kids took pictures of it on their cell phones to send to other people so they too could ignore the situation. The question is really - what does it this say about us as a nation who is supposed to embrace Judeo/Christian values? How do we begin to change it? Any thoughts?
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