人情冷漠幾時休？

Finally， a word about the awful things that happen to people and what we choose to do or choose not to do about them.

I’m talking about an attack on a man named Allen Haywood in a Washington， D.C. metro station the day after New Year’s. He was attacked in the early evening by two young teenagers for no apparent reason that anybody can see， as he read a book waiting to board a train after working out at a gym on 1)Capitol Hill.

He was beaten， his book was thrown in the tracks as those two kids and a number of others laughed about it.

Besides being really disgusted by and worried about the behavior of the two very young people who started this， I’m even more worried about what seemed to be dozens of people around him who apparently did nothing to stop the attack or help Haywood except take pictures. In the video， you can hear the voice of a man who might be a teenager himself， expressing disgust with what’s going on but he doesn’t seem inclined to do anything about it， except film the whole thing with what looks like a cell phone camera.

Can I just tell you， it’s easy to 2)rail against the indifference of humanity; it’s a lot harder to figure out what to do about it. But rail we must， because silence really does equal 3)assent， and we also have to ask the hard questions， including questions of ourselves.

Why， first of all， do some step in and so many look away? Or more to the point， continue to look and do nothing?

So why did nobody help Allen Haywood or even apparently call metro authorities who are present at every train stop? Because Haywood is a man and they thought he should be able to take care of himself? Because he’s white? Because they were afraid the kids would turn on them?

I remember when one of my stepdaughters and I were watching a news story unfold together. It was about a lawyer who was shot outside of a courthouse by a 4)disgruntled former client as a news cameraman who just happened to be there， captured the whole thing on tape.

My stepdaughter， who is a doctor， whose father is a lawyer， who may or may not have a disgruntled client someday， was disgusted by this. Why doesn’t he help him， she kept asking me. I had an answer: he was doing something by recording the scene. But that hardly seemed 5)adequate， and that’s exactly how I feel about what went on in that Washington metro station.

These days we talk of the citizen journalist， one who stands by and aids the reporting process by using increasingly inexpensive and accessible recording devices. Does this mean we are all bystanders now?

Just a few weeks ago I stopped to get my morning tea， when I saw a young teenager， maybe 14 or 15 years old， repeatedly slapping a very young child of maybe three or four. The teenager was surrounded by his friends and I 6)surmise that he was probably babysitting the child， would rather have been with his friends， and was 7)resentful about it.

I ran across the street saying， “Can I help you? Can I help you?” explaining I had young children too and maybe I could help him get things back on track. The boy—and he was a boy—told me in no uncertain terms to mind my own business. I told him if somebody bigger were hurting him， I would hope I would step in. I hope I would. I hope.

最后，討論一下關于別人身上發生的可怕事情，以及我們會否選擇出手相助。

我說的是一名叫艾倫·海伍德的男子在新年的第二天在華盛頓特區的地鐵站被人襲擊的事。傍晚時分，他無緣無故被兩個少年襲擊，當時他從國會山的一個體育館鍛煉完出來，一邊看書一邊等車。

他被人毆打，書被扔進了車軌，而那兩個小孩和其他的一些人則因此而哈哈大笑。

除了對挑起這一事端的兩個小青年的行為著實感到厭惡和擔憂外，我更為憂心的是當時似乎有數十人在海伍德身邊，但顯然他們除了拍照外，沒人出手阻止這起襲擊或者向他施以援手。在視頻中，你可以聽到一個可能也是十多歲的年輕人對發生在眼前的這一事件表示厭惡，但他看來并不打算有所行動，而是用看起來像手機照相機的東西拍下整個事件。

我想直接地說，指責人性的冷漠很容易，但要搞清楚如何改善這種情況卻難得多。但我們必須指責，因為沉默真的等同容許，而且我們還應提出這些尖銳的問題，其中包括撫心自問。

首先，為什么有些人出面干預而那么多人卻轉過頭去？或者更中肯地說，為什么繼續旁觀而無動于衷？

所以，為什么沒有人幫助艾倫·海伍德，或者直接喊一下地鐵工作人員？他們在每個地鐵站都有人駐守。難道是因為海伍德是一個男人，他們覺得他應該能照顧好自己？因為他是個白人？因為他們害怕那兩個孩子會轉而對付他們？

我記得我和我的一個繼女一同收看一則新聞故事時的情景。……