Column: Silence in the face of courage

Elliot Golan / Roundup

“A person is smart,” begins a quote from the movie “Men In Black.” “People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.”

The lack of action people exhibit in extreme situations is often a greater injustice than the tragedy itself.

Whether it be fear or detachment, people seem incapable of defending righteousness.

On Oct. 24 in Richmond, Calif., a 15-year-old girl was gangraped by as many as 10 people, according to police.

The bigger tragedy of this may be the estimated 10 people who stood idle and watched the act take place without calling 9-1-1. Reports claim the rape occurred for more than two hours.

I’m confused.

How do 10 people watch such a heinous attack without their moral alarms blaring? This is not the first time in recent memory people have failed to act when it was necessary.

On Sept. 11, 2001, four passenger airliners were hijacked with the intention of being used as weapons against the United States. Three succeeded.

While the first three planes struck the targets they were designated for, an attempt to retake the fourth by some of its passengers caused it to crash into a field in rural Pennsylvania.

Though there were no survivors from any of the flights, the people on the fourth who took matters into their own hands deserve recognition and even applause.

Both of these events bring the mob mentality question to mind. If only one person was watching the rape take place, or if there was only one passenger on any of these flights, would the odds of involvement increase, or decrease?

Due to these lapses in ethical judgement, my faith in humanity is waning.

There is no reason to feel hope or pride in the human condition anymore. Considering these fresh examples in memory, one can only assume we will not improve.

The only glimmer of light that exists is that as horrible as we are, we can’t get much lower.