Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. (Proverbs 31:8)Why is it so easy to stand by and do nothing? Is it apathy? …cowardice? …assuming that someone else will do something? The primary example of this is Kitty Genovese, the 28-year old New York woman who was stabbed to death right outside her apartment building in 1964. Her extended attack lasted over 30 minutes, but neighbors (by popular report up to 38 of them knew something bad was going on) huddled indoors and did nothing. Ten years later, a woman was beaten to death in an adjacent building while again, the neighbors heard her screams, but did nothing to help. [1]
Those are extreme cases, and it’s easy to read about them and assure ourselves we would behave differently. Yet Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan informs us that this is not just a 20th/21st century phenomenon. It’s part of who we are as human beings. In every city, there are those who are poor, oppressed and in need, who have no voice to speak up for themselves.
Who will speak up for the poor? Who will speak up for the oppressed? Who will speak up for the fearful? Who will speak up for the abused? Who will speak up for the indebted? Who will speak up for the hungry? Who will speak up for the addicted? Who will speak up for the enslaved? Who will speak up for the children?
The only thing needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke.
For whom should you be speaking up? If you ask the Holy Spirit about this, someone WILL come to your mind. Try it.
[1] Rorschach of the 1985 graphic novel Watchmen (to be released as a motion picture in March of 2009) is a regular guy, motivated to don a costume (another Masked Avenger candidate?) and fight crime, by Ms. Genoveses's murder.
NOTE: Does anyone besides me wonder when comic books became graphic novels?
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