How?

[Shang Li]

How can you see a child beaten nearly to death and not lift a finger? How is it that on a crowded street, a man can steal a purse and not be seen? How is it that a man can starve to death, passed by every day by people who obviously have too much food? How can that many people just ignore the screams of a young woman being stabbed in an alleyway?

I doubt I would want the memories that explain these questions, if I truely understood the nature of the answers I ask for, but this day of wandering has made a permanent impression, and I must understand how these things happen when almost everyone is capable of making them stop.

I fear the answer to these questions, were the answers to these questions something that weighed heavily on me in the past?

[KonThaak]

Unfortunately, Li-sensei, to many western minds, it is "not their problem". My wife and I try to do what we can, but we seem to be the exceptions in our area... Likewise, I know Willie does what he can, too. So do Ron and Ben. A lot of the people here try, but there are far more people out there who don't...

This, I would venture to say, is part of the reason GhostSpider has disparaged himself of humanity, and why I am tempted on a daily basis to do the same...but I can't.

[Ron Caliburn]

It's part survival instinct I think. If you watch animals in the wild, with the exception of parent/child relationships, when a predator hauls down one of the herd the rest just go back about their buisness rather than draw the predators attention to themselves.

It also explains the high mortality rate amoung those who do try to step in - apparently our survival instincts are somewhat underdeveloped.

At least that's what Wie tells me everytime I come back battered and bruised.

[Ethan Skinner]

How can you see a child beaten nearly to death and not lift a finger? How is it that on a crowded street, a man can steal a purse and not be seen? How is it that a man can starve to death, passed by every day by people who obviously have too much food? How can that many people just ignore the screams of a young woman being stabbed in an alleyway?

Guess I'll take a stab at this... it's easy to watch. It's easy to turn the other way and try to pretend it ain't happening. Other times, it's not so much a choice as it is a choice, if you take my meaning.

I once had to make the choice of staying on the city bus and watching over a girl, since she wasn't allowed at the time to ride it alone, and watching an elderly woman shuffle off the bus while two big bruisers followed her off. I stayed on the bus and made sure the girl got home safely. Later the next day, I was walking down the same street and found the old lady tossed halfway in an alley, covered in garbage. My choices had been limited between keeping a young girl from being brutally raped and later murdered, or keeping an old woman safe. It was one or the other. The police didn't care when I called them about the body. That's my excuse on how I can "see a child beaten nearly to death and not lift a finger."

As for the purse being snatched and not seen on a crowded street... there are some denim fine pickpockets in the world.

[KonThaak]

On the turning away...from the pale and downtrodden...
And the words they say, which we won't understand...
Don't accept that what's happening is just a case of others' suffering,
Or you'll find that you're joining in the Turning Away...

It's a sin that somehow...light is changing to shadows...
And casting its shroud over all we have known...
Unaware how the ranks have grown...driven on by a heart of stone...
We could find that we're all alone in the dream of the proud...

On the wings of the night...as the daytime is stirring...
Where the speechless unite in a silent accord...
Using words you will find are strange, mesmerized as they light the flame,
Feel the new wind of change...on the wings of the night...

No more turning away...from the weak and the weary!
No more turning away from the coldness inside!
Just one world that we all must share...
It's not enough just to stand and stare!
Is it only a dream that there'll be no more turning away?

[Ethan Skinner]

Nice verse, KonThaak.

Too bad it won't cure the world's ills.

[KonThaak]

It's not mine... It's David Gilmoure's. But people like him and Roger Waters--and countless other musicians and artists--are doing what they can... If noone else does anything, then their efforts become wasted...but artists and groups get involved in communities, charities, and politics, hoping that others will follow their examples.

No, a song won't save the world...but if someone sings it, and acts on what they're singing, they will inspire others.

That's the theory, anyway...