Please, DON'T Mind Your Own Business

As my family and I saw the coverage of the Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping this past week, the question that we kept asking each other was, "How"?" How did these monsters get away with keeping a young woman and eventually her two children in their backyard for 18 years? How did they slip under the radar, free to rape and abuse their victims? The perpetrators had neighbors, close neighbors. They were not living on a compound in the middle of a prairie or on a remote mountain. They were literally surrounded by people who could have sounded a warning. People who in some instances, saw and heard things that were unusual and downright troubling. A couple of people tried to do the right thing, but their efforts fell flat. So, they stopped trying. Many people in the neighborhood knew of Phillip Garrido's sex offender status, but still grudgingly accepted his presence and chose to ignore the odd things that they saw and heard. They felt that it was none of their business, they just left him alone. Because, of course, the neighbors would appreciate the same freedom. They wouldn't want anyone questioning their peculiarities, right? Problem: they were not keeping a sex slave and her two children in their back junk yard like dogs. Decent people deserve to walk in freedom, predators do not.

What makes some people ignore the little voice that whispers that something is not right? How do they still that voice that urges them to take a closer look? Are they afraid, too self-involved or just completely clueless?

"Evil flourishes when good men do nothing." This is a quote from Edmund Burke and it sums up my feelings about this matter. Evil is present in our world, whether or not we choose to acknowledge it's existence. If it is given free reign, it will gain more and more ground. By our inaction, we are contributing to it's growth and dominance. If we ignore opportunities to beat back the darkness, we may not feel the consequences, but someone else will. And then we have to look at ourselves and ask, "How? How was I so stupid, lazy, timid, unconcerned, etc. to care? How has our society become so blind that fathomless evil has been able to exist right under our very noses?"

One of the hardest things that I have ever had to do is to stand up and speak out when everyone else was being silent. Harder still is maintaining the warning when people choose not to listen. But we must speak. Or one day that little voice inside of us may begin to ask a very tormenting question, "How can you live with what you didn't do?"