Personally, I am a big believer in a society in which people help each other out. I don’t think that people in a true, functioning society should be left to do everything by themselves and receive no help at all. This goes for times of need as well. After reading Nightmare of the 36 Bus, I couldn’t help but feel angry. Angry at the passengers that stood by as a child was beaten in public. In the case of David Cash, I am truly speechless. I cannot even begin to create the idea that someone could see a kid being assaulted, by a friend no less, and not do anything about it. I understand that in certain bystander circumstances one is unable to act up due to their own safety, for example if someone has a deadly weapon. And even then, there are examples like what happened in France where people did intervene. But if it is your friend, I’m sorry but that’s on you.
It astonishes me that we need to pass laws to make people step up and help. And it worries me, too. How many David Cash’s are we unaware about? How many bystanders decided not to speak up/not have any evidence proving that they did nothing? Unfortunately, it seems like these bystander laws are the right way to go. I wish that more people had compassion and the drive to help others, but that simply is not true. It is something we as a society need to work on as a whole.