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Kitty
| Philosophy 101 |
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Kitty |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan 
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“During the 1960s, when there was no shortage of drama in the nation’s courtrooms, one murder case stood alone in its ability to shock the country. The crime was not as gruesome as some others, since many more were just as violent, and still more that easily surpassed it. The victim was an ordinary working girl, not at all wealthy and not a member of any elite class. Her name was Catherine Genovese, the 28-year-old daughter of Italian-American parents. But to millions of people who read her story when it first appeared in New York City’s press, she would forever be remembered as “Kitty” Genovese. What happened to her, what happened to all of society on that dreadful night in the spring of 1964, would reverberate across the country and generate a national soul-searching that is reserved for only the most catastrophic of events. And nearly 40 years later, her name has become synonymous with a dark side of an urban character that, for many people, represents a harsh and disturbing reality of big city life.” http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/kitty_genovese/ I actually got into a tense discussion with someone who contended that if there was a scream in the night for help, so long as I was with her, I had no business going out. Let’s assume for a moment 911 is not working or the phones are busy. You’re married, or have a significant other sitting beside you. Whoever is crying out , it’s not someone you know. What’s the obligation, if any, that you go out and possibly risk your life to help a stranger? |
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| © Copyright 2004 John Pawlik - All Rights Reserved | |||
Stephanos
since 2000-07-31
Posts 3618Statesboro, GA, USA |
Where did the phrase "good samaritan" come from? Anyone remember that story? The bane of 21st century life in America is insulated digitized lives, where it's hard even to care, much less act, to help another. But it's still possible, even if rare, and I think we should all make sure we don't forget to at least be open to individual acts of compassion, rather than leaving everything to the "professionals", or the "system". That's what makes us really human. Stephen. |
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Marge Tindal
since 1999-11-06
Posts 42384Florida's Foreverly Shores |
quote:Without a shadow of a doubt ... I would rush out to assist~ If I was with 'someone' ... before I rushed out to help, I'd instruct them to keep trying to get backup assistance~ ~*When the heart grieves over what it has lost, |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
Marge, Why? |
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TexUS Member
since 2003-03-20
Posts 228 |
I think your friend is wrong. The obligation is a moral one…compassion, and “putting ones self in another’s shoes” is what should provoke us into action. I cannot believe 38 people heard, saw, or knew something was going on, and did nothing. That practically makes them all accomplices in this horrible crime. How sad they did not think “if this was my daughter, sister, mother, I would want someone to help her”… |
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Kaoru
since 2003-06-07
Posts 3892where the wild flowers grow |
I've been in a situation where I needed to scream for help, and no one came to my rescue. I was being chased by a psycho ex-boyfriend with a weapon. I screamed at the top of my lungs for help, and there was nothing... So, I guess that if I had gotten killed or majorly injured, I or my family would've wondered why no one helped. It's pretty hard not to hear someone scream right outside of your house when it's dead quiet. I wonder what they were thinking.. |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
TexUS, Perhaps, and yet consider the perspective. It’s one thing to approve giving your own life, and another to agree to a loved one even risking his, whether it be a loved man going into the dangerous dark or a son going off to war however laudable the reason. How does one reconcile that love with a willingness to send that love to possibly being lost forever? John |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
Kaoru, As alluded to in my response to TexUS, it may depend on the perspective. If you went screaming past a barracks full of single men and no one responded there might be one reason, in a mean neighborhood with families behind their doors, another. It’s relatively easy to be brave when you are alone, or among and for those you at least consider friends, something else for strangers. John |
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Alicat Member Elite
since 1999-05-23
Posts 4094Coastal Texas |
John, it's a psychological group mentality. The more people are present in the group, the more each one thinks someone else will step up and do something, and the less responsibility is percieved as owned by each member of the group. In some instances, this is indeed false, when a group acts as one to help another in need without thought of individual selves. Howsoever, more often than not, each and every person in a group of onlookers each thinks that someone else will do what needs doing. Somebody will step forward. Somebody will confront. If not, then I will, but I'll just wait a moment just in case someone else wants to step forward first. See how it goes? Sometimes herds move as one, and sometimes they don't. It all depends on the individual in the group. As an aside, questioning another's personal reasons and motives while giving none of your own, simply more questions and references to 'experts' is more than a bit unfair. How about answering your own question for once without relying on outside sources. As for me, I would step forward, and have in the past. Not out of hopes of glory, not out of hopes of press attention, but out of doing the right thing, irregardless of the cost. This is not based on some intellectual's viewpoint. It's simply part of the core of who I am. Like it or not, I am Me. |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
Alicat, /pip/Forum91/HTML/000070.html John |
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Alicat Member Elite
since 1999-05-23
Posts 4094Coastal Texas |
Though an interesting poem, it's a non-sequitor. I could try to connect the myriad dots in an effort to recreate the picture you have in your mind, but that's a rather pointless exercise in futility. I already have enough of those, like herding cats and trying to get a very intelligent, but lazy, 15-year-old to do better in school, without taking on more of those exercises. |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
Alicat, Very well then, I‘ll give you this. I might, even now, go out but because: /pip/Forum91/HTML/000721.html and I might not, because it was a long time ago, and I think a man has a right to retire from the line. We all, (including me), will have to just wait and see. John P.S. “I actually got into a tense discussion with someone who contended that if there was a scream in the night for help, so long as I was with her, I had no business going out.” My girl, (we met at university), was very angry with me, as were, years before, my parents, (former slaves under Hitler), when I told them I intended to enlist. |
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Marge Tindal
since 1999-11-06
Posts 42384Florida's Foreverly Shores |
quote: John, I can't conceive of any reason why not ! I speak with experience here ... I have been called upon in the past to come to the aid of 'complete strangers' ... three separate times involving three separate 'strangers'~ I certainly hope that if ever I am the one urgently needing help, that whoever might hear my cries won't take the time to flip a coin in deciding 'if' they should come to my aid~ ~*Marge*~ ~*When the heart grieves over what it has lost, |
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