Bystander

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
-Paulo Freire

My uncle was murdered last week. Shot once in the neck and both kneecaps to stop him from crawling away. The suspect, a colleague with a prior criminal record, had cases for arson and attempted murder dismissed because all the prosecution witnesses were conveniently found dead before they even had the chance to take the witness stand. Naturally, our family remains hard-pressed to find witnesses to the shooting willing to put themselves and their own families at risk and put this madman to justice.

When we stand down against the powerful out of fear and turn a blind eye to blatant injustices for reasons of inconvenience, is it a mere matter of apathy? Or do we, by our disassociation from these harsh truths, help perpetuate the reign of these self-fashioned gods?

While sympathy comes easy for most of us, taking action would be the noblest response. Reality, however, will stifle the efforts of even the most idealistic. Perhaps in the end we are all prostrate in the fight against injustice. Perhaps we are all but bystanders.