“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
- Elie Wiesel
I have questions that I can't seem to drop.
Where was her dad? If he was supposed to pick her up, where was he the two hours she was being brutally raped?
How could people walk by and do nothing? What the fuck made them think their cell phones were better used for video than for calling 911? Where are those videos now?
Why did the insensitive, district spokesperson find it necessary to call the dance a "success" when he was being interviewed? Does he have any idea what just happened?
In what sociopathic mindset is it acceptable to rape a woman, let alone in the presence of others?
How the hell did this turn into an excuse for racism?
How can anybody not be overwhelmingly disturbed by this?
What will happen to her?
4 comments:
I've been feeling the same way. How could this happen? It makes me sick to think about.
Me too, I read an article today about the "bystander effect" and it made me sick just to think about! It breaks my heart. When did it become okay to do this type of thing? and to just sit back and watch? I can't stop thinking about that poor girl.
I, too, am haunted. I simply can't understand how people are capable of being so cruel, so without a sense of right and wrong. I can't understand how the bystanders could watch another human being being abused and not feel every fiber in their body screaming at them to stop it. To call for help.
Part of me began to wonder, before any facts had been released, before the speculation about the victim's character began to circulate, what she could have possibly done that was so horrible that no witnesses would help her?. The answer? Nothing. There is nothing that anyone could ever do to deserve this. I found myself wondering, if it was someone else, would the passersby have intervened? Would they have called 911?
Truthfully, I'm bothered that my brain even went there. I'm disappointed in myself because I realize that I was (and still am) so desperately searching for something to separate me from this girl, to find comfort in knowing that I am somehow smarter, wiser, safer, whatever. Part of me wants to understand, as if knowing why makes one bit of a difference.
As troubled by these events as I presently am, I also know that I will think about them less and less until they all but fade from my memory all together. I wish she could experience the same.
Jess, Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts/process. I was just on the phone with my mom crying about this, and my colleagues and I spent our prep periods talking about it; I'm not sure if I'm glad it's haunting me or if I wish that I hadn't internalized it. Like you said, this is forever part of her, now. It will get easier for us.
I hope that, as teachers, we have some ability to teach our kids that they have a responsibility to humanity. I'm re-thinking my curriculum and looking forward to including more discussions of ethics. It doesn't seem like enough.
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