Why do so many people choose to look away and not offer help to those who clearly need it?
This question is really geared towards everyone- including myself at times. I too have been guilty of turning my head and pretending not to see what was so blatantly in front of me, but I have taken steps to keep myself from doing this. I make an effort to truly see everyone for the person that God created them to be, but it is so hard to do this when living in a world so incredibly divided by language, race, gender and status.
I notice that (especially) in a city setting, hundreds of thosands of people make the same commute every day and they get into a habit of going the same way and doing the same thing every day. I can also prety much guarantee that the vast majority of those individuals pass homless people on a daily basis, people who are starving, sick, and cold, and most people dont even turn their heads to acknowledge their existence. That is so sad to think about, how we can all be the same species coexisting together, but our simple drive to help others is so far gone that we don’t even think twice about stepping outside the social norm to help someone who clearly needs help.
This idea of helping others does not just stop at choosing to turn our heads the other way to the homeless and helpless, but also to individuals who may seem to be normal, those people who look like they live a good life but are secretly living in fear. I can relate this mostly to domestic violence and abuse, many times the signs can be quite real, but people choose to dilibratly ignore the signs. Sometimes nobody will choose to speak out before it’s too late, this happens all over the world and it baffles me beyond belief. When I was little, my mom did everything she could to save her children from a dangerous man who used physical actions in order to assert his dominance over my family. She had very little help and was stuck in an abusive relationship for a long time with nowhere to go, so many cases like this take place every single day and few get the help they need.
I think an answer to this question should be simple, and there are step to create a simple solution. But unfortunately the answer isn't as simple as it may seem or this would not be an issue. It is sad to think about the millions of people who go through each day in need of help but there is nobody there to offer their assistance. I think it is very easy to get wrapped up in day to day life and not think about the bigger picture, but when you do finally realize that you only have one life to live, wouldn't you want to live the best life possible and help others do the same?
People get so caught up in what the society thinks and they neglect to acknowledge the simple fact that we are all equal.
