[4823] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: moral indecision
sorokin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sorokin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Sep 4 14:07:48 1995
>Tough choice. However, did you never, ever fight with Yi, or another
>SO? Perhaps you had the good taste to do it in private where
>strangers could not see it, or your disagreements were less, well,
>loud. If she had been obviously injured, this would be different, but
>you had no evidence at all of anything actionable.
>
>If there had been some evidence that he'd been doing more than
>screaming at her, it would be different. But screaming, in general,
>is legal, and IMHO, as strangers, privacy would seem to be the main
>consideration here.
Um. While I see your point, I'm not sure that it's *ever* wrong, in a
situation like that, to simply say, "Hi, are you okay, do you need
help?" Maybe she's fine and they were arguing about dinner and she'd
have been annoyed if you stuck your nose in it; but last January I saw a
half dozen people walk past a man throwing a woman repeatedly up against
a car while she screamed "Ow, stop, you're hurting me!" As I waited to
cross the street to try to stop it the man behind me said to someone
else, "No, I saw it start, they know each other," and the two of then
turned and walked away.
There's a line somewhere, but it's probably better to err on the side of
intrusiveness. I've been approached by random strangers once or twice
when I looked like I was in trouble, and while I never was (and once, in
fact, had been having a fight with a boyfriend) I'd much rather have
that happen than think no one would offer me help if I did need it.
