Heroes Wanted – No Experience Necessary

Have you seen the nausea producing video of the Pennsylvania boy who was beaten up and left hanging by his coat on an iron stake?

Then you know that the bullies (thugs), whose brutal assault lasted more than 20 minutes, were seven teenagers who went so far as to film their monstrous behavior on a cell phone.

They laughed while they taunted, tortured and terrified a 13 year-old eighth grader who was just trying to go home after school. What you may have missed was the image of a woman walking through the hellish nightmare. She clearly saw what was happening and chose to ignore it. She wasn’t running, she wasn’t screaming, she just walked calmly away without looking back.

How could this be? Well, she might have been scared herself, which is quite understandable. But she didn’t call 911 when she felt safe. In fact, not one single person called 911 to report this atrocity despite the painful screams echoing through the streets. Broad daylight and on a city street a few blocks from Middle School. And not one person called.

Outrageous, you might say. But social psychologists have studied this phenomenon and the people who might have seen or heard what was happening behaved as they might have predicted. For the most part people always assume that someone else will make the call or step in to help when a crime or accident is happening, especially if others are around. Human nature, I guess.

But the tendency to believe they needn’t assume responsibility in a crisis should only hold until that person becomes aware of this phenomenon. Once they are awakened to the fact that they cannot count on anyone else to act in a critical situation, they should realize that the weight of responsibility falls squarely on their shoulders. Walking away should become less of a comfortable response and hopefully they will feel much more compelled to do something.

So now that you know, make it your personal obligation to be the one to yell for help when you see something happening that’s wrong. It has to be you. Don’t let yourself off the hook. You cannot expect that some one else has it covered. Just think about that terrified boy and imagine for a moment how he must have felt. And then remember that it could have been your little boy — or you. Make sure that kind of thing never happens on your watch which, by the way, covers the entire period of your life.

We have to take care of each other. It’s not enough to sing the songs of peace and brotherhood. We have to walk the walk. So next time you see an accident happen on the freeway, or a kid being harassed, call 911. And if your kid comes home with a tale about some thugs making noise at school, open your mouth to the authorities, whether he’s the target or not. And don’t shut it until something concrete has been done.

Imagine what the world could be like if we all really did think of each other as family and acted accordingly…

P.S. The boy’s mom says that her family fled Liberia, Africa to escape the terrors of civil war and poverty. Welcome to America. Can’t we do better?