My side of the line
Complacency

By Rebecca JamesCourie
Editor-in-Chief

There’s an example many motivating speakers refer to when talking about complacency: Picture a frog sitting in a pot of water.  Slowly the heat is turned up and the water starts to get hot.  The frog does not stir.  The heat is turned up some more and still the frog stays still.  Finally the water is churning in a rolling boil.  You’ve guessed it.  The frog is now a delicatessen for someone’s meal.  Picture another frog this time tossed into the already boiling water.  Whew!  He’s out of there lickety-split! 

We are not unlike the frogs.  It oftentimes takes a jolt of boiling water or, in our case, a horrific event to spur us into action.  Otherwise, we often complacently sit, stewing in our own indecisiveness—getting a little uncomfortable with our surroundings—but still not moved into action.

In last Saturday’s Reader’s Comments, you read about the mistreatment of a “woman of color” who was verbally abused. And you’ll read again in this issue comments from her, comments from the business she was in when abused and comments from another person who was there at the time. 

My question is this: Why didn’t someone stand up and defend her?  I would have and I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to do so.  It completely amazes me that others sat by while this mature, older woman (I don’t care if she was chartreuse) was being bullied. She is someone’s grandmother, mother, friend, confidant, mentor, choir member, church member—but first and foremost, she is a person, and she is a person of value. 

I cannot honestly say what must have been going on in people’s minds as they saw this disgusting behavior play out before their eyes.  But it’s a sad day when the value of someone is degraded for no good reason.  It’s even a sadder day when people will not come to the aid of another. Perhaps they feared they would’ve gotten beat up.  I say, “Bring it on!”  Perhaps they were in shock.  I say, “Snap out of it!” Or, perhaps they were just content to sit and stew.  To that I say, “Complacency is ugly.”  It is our duty to rise up against injustice.  If we don’t, then do we deserve the freedom that is every American’s God-given right?