My life has been changing the past few years. I always grew up knowing that I needed to stand up for what was right. It was that simple. Just stand up for what’s right and everything will be okay. Except as you grow older life complicates itself. Loyalties, relationships and the grey areas of life make the right thing murky at times and being a bystander becomes a more viable option than being a leader. As I’ve grown older I’ve realized the true courage that it has taken throughout history to be the one that stands up for the right thing. While I could go on and on about why we should stand up for the right thing and throw an insufferable amount of clichés at you, I think there is more to be said to the bystander. The one that stands silent and lets their life go on as if everything is okay when it isn’t.

It’s easy to be the bystander. You feel alright because you didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, and you don’t really want to make a fuss. In fact, if you just stay silent and move on you don’t have to deal with the after effects and you can use the story as a reminder of what not to do. The problem is, it becomes more than just shutting up. Being a bystander is being compliant with the action. It becomes covering up to keep it away and it is a sign of deeper cowardice. One wishes to stay free of being bothered at the expense of others. There is a reason that bystanders are punished, there is a reason that watching and saying nothing is never okay, because it hurts people. Those who needed you to stand up for them when it was hardest, suffer the most because the bystander decided to simply watch and refuse action or voice to the victim. I am tired of silence when noise is needed just like I am tired of people making noise whenever they darn well please. When actual acts of injustice are happening and those who see it either say nothing or use the footage or incident for their personal fifteen minutes of fame, they continue to rid the victim of their voice. Please do not be silent for the sake of keeping a fake normalcy, for the sake of keeping a dreamland your reality. Please, don’t be the bystander. You don’t have to be the face of an issue, but you don’t have to be part of the problem either.