Ruckus on the island
When you see something going awry right in front of your very eyes, at what point do you get involved? Do you get involved at all? Many time it's that fear of what may happen to the person breaking up the situation, having to deal with the repercussions of just trying to help. It's happened many times before where the good Samaritan is left to deal with the aftermath of a situation that he/she never did intend for nor cause in the first place. What if anything would make you hesitate? A person's race, size or even sex or social standing, perhaps. At what point do you say, hey enough is enough, and for the sake of peace you intervene. You run things through your mind later and wonder, is it done? Is there anything else? But then there's always repercussions, especially when dealing with an immature lot. So then at what point do you decide to fight back and do it in such a way that it leads to no more drama.
4 comments:
Good question. I think it depends on the volatility of the situation and the context. It is always necessary to consider one's own safety in such situations. With so many rage-aholics about these days, you can never be too careful. For me, I am prone to offer sobering interventions when there is an argument and just suggest they take a break, separate, and either return to the issue later, when cooler heads prevail, or that they leave it alone altogether and just agree to disagree. If things look like they are getting physical, then I would call on others to help with breaking it up before it escalates to more dangerous and irreversible levels.
Sigh...sad though it may be, one has to chose their battles wisely, and I guess that it would depend on the issue as well. In today's world, 'butting in' can be downright dangerous, especially on such a small island.
It is a difficult decision to make especially if you are a caring person. What I would say is choose carefully where you intervene. What I find helps is where you don't tell the person what to do in the situation, but merely suggest several options and let them choose how to deal with their particular situation.
This is a hard one in today's world. Women must be concerned first with personal safety, as I'm sure that you are. I have called 911 when I saw a particularly upsetting incident that I felt could get out of hand. I have not stepped in myself though. I think it would be especially tough on an island!
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