Title: If Everyone Cared....
Tags: Compassion Generosity
Blog Entry: There's a lot of talk in the world these days about how to help people. Should we reform the health care system? Bail out the banks? Grow the government's social programs? While each of those may have merit, the real, on-the-street local answers are simpler than you think. Helping people only requires generosity and compassion. Is that really too much to ask? The brutal murder of Kitty Genovese (1964) lasted a gut-wrenching thirty-five minutes. Thirty-seven people who lived in apartment houses nearby admitted afterwards that they had heard the woman screaming for her life as she was being stabbed to death. Some admitted to having gone to their windows to watch the attack on the sidewalk below. No-one helped. Not one. Nobody even bothered to call the Police. Did it even flash across their minds to do something? Generosity and compassion has become a very important topic to me, well since this afternoon anyway. Today while riding my moped home from school, the rain pouring down onto my helmet, the roads drenched in puddles, I had an accident. I don’t know exactly what happened; my bike just slid from underneath me sending me smashing onto the hard concrete floor. I was lying, flat on the road, with my moped tangled a few meters away from me, still with the lights on. I looked up, my whole body aching, to which I saw a car slowly pass right by me. It had seen everything. There I was, a human being, lying in the middle of the soaking road in pain hardly able to move; and the car just went on past, like nothing had happened. I was truly grateful to the next car which came along, who stopped to help me and ask me if I was ok. It was a man, in about his twenties. He was obviously in a rush, but he had the kindness to make me his priority, a complete stranger. He didn’t do much, just helped me pick my bike up and make sure I was able to get home safely. The man was in and out of my life within 5 minutes, I will never see him again. Yet what he did, just showing that he cared, gave me the emotional strength to get back on my bike and keep riding. Stories about bystanders, who witness horrific crimes and accidents and decide not to help, fill the newspapers daily. The famous story of Kitty Genovese often causes people to start losing faith in humanity, and I am sure you will have been outraged by the car which passed by me in my moment of need. However, it is people, like the man who decided to help me, who give us hope. I could call the man a hero, or an angel, or simply a decent human being. The two examples I have given are very extreme and don’t happen every day, everywhere. However there are always people who need help. You can be that hero, angel or decent human. You can give someone the hope and faith to carry on. You can be the person who decides to care about a complete stranger. You can be the person who makes someone else a priority in your life, even for only 5 minutes. I urge you to go out and help someone. The opportunity to do good is awaiting you right now, in the hearts of those who need your help. Maybe you could buy a homeless person a tea from McDonalds next time you’re in town? It will have cost you less than £1 but you will have made that person feel special and brightened their day. It is ridiculously easy! Maybe you could get involved with a volunteer scheme? You could even just make the effort to speak to someone who you don’t know. So what are you waiting for? Go show the world your generosity and spread your compassion!
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