Good Deeds Indeed

When you see someone is being harassed or worst, shot in front of your eyes, what would you do? Would you run to their rescue or would you rather turn a blind eye and run the other way?

These questions ran through my mind after the news of the death of a Good Samaritan in Melbourne CBD last weekend. The fellow was trying to save two people who were the target of a shooter and in the end, he was the one who got shot and died at the crime scene while the targeted victims are now being treated in the hospital for serious injuries. If you ask me, yes, I think that is very noble of him but if you further probe me with the dilemma of whether or not I'd do the same thing, the first answer that popped into my mind was "Giler.. I don't even know these people"

Huh, a proof of how selfish and ignorant I am and as I watched the news, I came to realise that it was also the opinion of half the people interviewed with the same question. Of course, we all do not want to be known as nasty and tragic people but reality bites you at the tip of your soul when you realise that you are not who you preached to be. We all want to be noble but to tell you the truth, we don't have the courage to.

Which reminds me of the story of 6 soldiers killed in Iraq on the same morning of the Virginia Massacre. The story was told in TIMES and caught my attention because it showed how romanticised some views of the world can be and to be specified, that of nobility is largely the case. Half of the poor souls drafted off to fight a war that is not theirs weren't even aware of what awaits them. The harsh reality of death being at your doorstep finally bang them right at the back of their mind when they came to discover that everyday, at least one of their fellow comrades is dying or has died at some part of Iraq. One of the most chilling comment made by a 25-year old soldier in an e-mail to his father a few days before he died was that "Hell had an address after all"

How noble do you have to be to be called a noble person? To stand in front of a person being shot? To be drafted to Iraq for an aimless war? Or just to do what you can to change the world in your way? After all, who would turn twice and look at your nobility when it is not on the tv and paper.. Question: Does it matter who sees what you do?