Don’t be afraid to speak out

You see two children with their mother in a restaurant … one is treated to whatever she wants, the other is restricted to the cheapest available. Not only that, but the way he’s spoken to, he’s made to feel inferior. It’s clearly unfair. Turns out it’s because one is the mother’s biological child, the other is a foster child.

It’s a tricky situation for a bystander. Nobody wants to get involved in someone’s family affairs. Nobody likes to create a scene. Yet nobody wants to see a child treated so badly either, and in public too. It begs the question …

What you YOU do?

Watch the video … watch the different reactions from various diners. Some bystanders think it’s not their place to speak out. Some don’t hesitate. We’d all like to think we’d do the right thing … but the question remains … in a similar situation, what would you do?

We should all take this to heart. We should all be prepared to stand up and be counted, specially when the victim is an innocent child. It’s not good enough to say “It’s not my place to intervene”. That’s the easy way out. When we stand by and watch something that’s clearly an injustice and we decide to do nothing … we, each one of us, as a silent bystander, is as much to blame as the perpetrator. It may be an unpalatable truth, but it’s still a truth.

Makes me think of the quote by a clergyman by the name of Martin Niemoller, who said:

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me … and there was no-one left to speak out for me”.