Why should I care?

 

Apathy! Piglet. I do not know what that is or if I really care. Where is the Honey?

I was walking home one night from a meeting. The local council offices had a large pool in front of it. It was late at night and there were a number of people standing to look down at the pool. A young woman was laying in the pool pushing her head under the water. Nobody was doing a thing. I went into the pool shoes and all and talked to her up and persuaded her to get out of the water. An ambulance arrived and I went with her to the hospital. Sounds like a small event but it took more than an hour from my getting into the water and her getting into the ambulance.

The poor girl was in a terrible state she just wanted to die. She was sectioned and taken to an appropriate hospital. It was sometime later that she visited me at the manse and told me of the treatment she had been given and thanked me for helping her. I still wonder to this day why nobody at all offered her or me any help that evening?

I surprised one or two friends the other day when I told them that in my youth I had been arrested and spent a night in a cell. I had been one of many taking part in a protest march against war, I was a young man at the time and had high ideals. Some of the things I believed in then I do not now, but at least I believed enough in something.

I often hear people make comments almost boasting that they have never taken the time to cast their vote at an election. Of course, they always have a good reason for not bothering usually it is because in their view those who are standing in the hope of being elected are just a shower of crooks. Now that may indeed be the case some of the time but I do not for the life of me believe it is so all of the time. 

It is the same with so many other things, litter, people blatantly breaking the law. The cry can be heard, "I don't care, nothing to do with me."

First, they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the religious

And I did not speak out

Because I was not religious.

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

In fact, the company that makes those humourous stickers for putting on your car bumper have brought out one with nothing on it. They are for all those people who do not want to get involved. Leave me alone nothing to do with me.

I heard this true story which illustrates what I mean.

When Rosina Hernandez was in college, she once attended a rock concert at which one young man was brutally beaten by another. No one made an attempt to stop the beating. The next day she was struck dumb to learn that the youth had died as a result of the pounding. Yet neither she nor anyone else had raised a hand to help him, or even use her cell phone to call for help. She could never forget the incident or her responsibility as an inactive bystander. 

Some years later, Rosina saw another catastrophe. 

A car driving in the rain ahead of her suddenly skidded and plunged into a river. The car landed head down in the water with only the tail end showing. In a moment a woman appeared on the surface, shouting for help and saying her husband was stuck inside.

This time Rosina waited for no one. She plunged into the water, tried unsuccessfully to open the car door, then pounded on the back window as other bystanders stood and watched. First, she screamed at them, begging for help, then cursed them, telling them there was a man dying in the car.

Eventually one man, then another, finally came to help. Together they broke the safety glass and dragged the man out. They were just in time -- a few minutes later it would have been all over.

The woman thanked Rosina for saving her husband, and Rosina was elated, riding an emotional high that lasted for weeks. She had promised herself that she would never again fail to do anything she could to save a human life. 

She had made good on her promise. 

The nice thing about apathy is you don't have to exert yourself to show you're sincere about it.

Somebody once asked the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  I make no attempt to answer the question I simply leave it hanging. 

Getting back to those who complain all the time about government both local and national. Many years ago a man by the name of Plato once said, "The penalty that good people pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by people worse than themselves. 

We live in troubled times and the danger is that those of us who care can get caught up in the apathy. We can end up like the lad who said to me, "Apathy! I do not know what that means and to be honest I do not care."

Have a wonderful day forgive me my little Friday rant.