the terror within

I saw a guy getting beaten up the other day. 7 or so larger youths took it upon themselves to lay in to him for no discernable reason. maybe they were refused a wallet or a cell phone.

so one defenseless young man was beaten. viciously, relentlessly. and people just walked on by. this wasn't in the meagre privacy afforded by a poorly lit alleyway or in the seculsion of some remote unused path, this took place in a mall. in public. before the eyes of a purposefully unseeing public.

7 or so youths, none out of their teens I would have thought, a law unto themselves, behaving like animals, unrestrained, undeterred, uninhibited by the possibility of repercussions. and the public shielded their eyes and walked on by.

I was incensed. furious. and sad. what kind of world do we live in when one young man cannot walk the streets in peace and safety, what kind of society spawns the type of vile, neanderthals that would do such a thing, and what kind of people stand by and do nothing?

maybe instead of calling for more gun and knife control we would do better to unfetter our vision, maybe then we could bring succour to a society intent of its own self destruction instead of roundly condemning the various victims, maybe we might ignite something of the heroic within us all by refusing to be intimidated and cowed in our own homes, schools, workplaces and so on, maybe then we would be able to live without fear. 

maybe, maybe...