Sad to say I had come across a situation where it was a decision as to whether to help defend someone or not. I don’t want to make this a big issue, but I still had this on my mind. What lengths and at what point am I willing to help someone who is being abused by another person.
So okay, here is how the situation played out:
I’m eating my breakfast in the park. A nice salad bowl and some macaroni with some nice sauce and small amounts of cheese.
Then I see a 2 guys, one who looks around his 70’s and who walks with a walking stick, who is sitting down. The two of them are arguing about something or the other, but I can’t speak Chinese that well nor understand too well. He looks around his 40’s, he is a young bloke in comparison to this other guy however.
Okay. So they are arguing, that’s fine, people argue and usually say sorry later to each other. But the younger guy was walking off and then they started shouting at each other. The younger guy walks back, picks up a bottle full of water and whacks this old man around the head. He hit this guy with this bottle really hard from the way it looked. This older guy fell off his seat, but quickly picked himself up. I can presume that the younger guy started cursing at him, as he was shouting after he did what he did.
Okay, so he only hit him around the head with a bottle. I felt very, very inclined to go do something about it. But the younger guy, kind of walked off and didn’t do anything more. The older guy looked fine and not to hurt by what had just happened.
It wasn’t just me watching, it was a groups around me and groups who were sitting across me who saw it all unfold. Like me they did nothing.
Where I would intervene…
I don’t have a clue what they were arguing about. But if the younger guy kept laying into the older guy, I would have done something. I probably would have hit the younger guy or done something to at least stop him. It looked to me that the younger guy and older guy had friends also sitting in the same area. The friends of the older guy did nothing, but that is probably a no-brainer as they looked the same age as this older guy if not older. But if this younger guy, kept hitting or kept assaulting this older dude, I would have probably laid into the younger guy and pointed him to the exit. I find it unacceptable to hit someone that old who can’t protecting himself. If you are going to hit someone for any reason, then let the terms be even and let that guy at least have a fighting chance. Although I do not like violence, sometimes you have to resort to violence when others choose that option, you do that instinctively when you a) have to defend yourself or b) have to defend others being attacked who have violence inflicted on them. I have this quote on my Facebook information page, which has a part, where you can state your favorite quotes, mine is:
“English philosopher Edmund Burke said, The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”
Is for good men to do nothing… I feel sad that I kind of didn’t act. But I made sure I was close by afterwards, if the younger guy started up stuff again on the old guy. The younger guy just sat down very near to the old guy and they just didn’t speak to each other. I’m not sure if they were relatives or what, but whatever the case, I would have protected the old man, if the younger guy started assaulting him again. I would have done something. That says a lot as there were groups around witnessing what was going on as well and they just started in amazement.
If you are reading this, what would your reaction be? Keep in mind you are in a country, where you can’t understand what people are saying.
