The Harry Potter Alliance

By Emeline

April 29, 2009

Refusing To Be a Bystander

Posted on the NING by VeganMudblood:
I was inspired to write this blog after a post made on an Internet forum, by someone who refused to just be a bystander to an atrocity.
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She is walking her dog in a park, when she comes across a group of around seven young teenage boys who are surrounding something, throwing sticks at it, and then stones. As she comes closer, she realizes that it is someone, and not something, they are throwing stones at. It is a baby squirrel, terrified, and unable to escape the tormentors surrounding him, and too small to fight back, as they tower over him. Calmly, trying to keep her nerve, she approaches the boys, and asks them to stop, to allow the frightened squirrel return to his mother in a nearby tree. They laugh, and resume pelting rocks at the squirrel. So she steps into the circle, acting as a shield between the perpetrators and the squirrel, so they can no longer do him harm. She tries to reason with them, telling them to put themselves in the squirrel’s position, asking how they would feel, but this is to no avail.

“Get out of the [obscenity] way, lady…It’s a [obscenity] squirrel,” they say. She remains where she stands, and proceeds to call 911 on her cell phone, to their loud protests and incredulity. As she speaks with the 911 operator, explaining the situation, and saying that she is not going to leave until the squirrel is safe, she receives the same bewilderment, that someone would even fathom calling 911 for the sake of a squirrel’s life. Laughing, the operator says she’ll send someone over there right away.

Two hours later, the cops finally arrive, and the woman is still standing in front of the squirrel, just as determined to protect him as the still surrounding boys are to harm him. They take the boys away to speak to them, and then each party departs, leaving the woman and her dog, who step aside, and watch the young squirrel retreat back up into the tree to his mother, unharmed.
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This story really touched me, because it is about the courage and determination of one individual who decided to step in, and stop an act of violence. So many atrocities occur in this world, simply because people are either too indifferent, or too afraid to speak up. This woman did not know what would happen if she stepped in; the boys might not have heeded her admonition (as they didn’t), or for all she knew, they might have decided to make a change of target and throw rocks at her. Yet, she still knew that someone had to do something, that this squirrel could not stand up for himself, so she chose to do the right thing, even though it was by no means, easy. She was yelled at, and laughed at, and even started to question her own sanity, but she stood her ground, and because of that, a life was saved.

Anyone could have been the woman, a witness having to make a decision, and anyone could have been the squirrel; there are so many others out there in the same situation, powerless, and unable to escape the violence or other injustices done to them. We must speak up for those who have no voice, whether they are the abused children in our community, the people of Darfur, or a baby squirrel trying to reunite with his family.

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” – Albert Einstein

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.