When We Allow Things to Happen to Others

People aren't perfect nor are they saints and shouldn't be expected to be. But we do have the ability to have compassion for others and feel for their plight or pain. We can see injustices as they occur around us, and perhaps as they do we can act to some degree on the behalf of the victims.

Often enough when people do act on behalf of those being victimized they are viewed as heroes, or going beyond the pale and at times even stupid or interfering. But usually they are simply people witness to something that makes them care and causes them to react. More often than not they do so because somewhere inside that victim they see something they recognize. Within that victim they very well may see a piece of themselves.

Perhaps that is because, whether we wish to admit it or not, when injustices are committed around us and not addressed each one of us pays a little price. When that happens as that victim loses something we too lose something.

People as individuals have a way of allowing things to slip, to be taken for granted and to get overlooked that we otherwise would not wish to when we allow ourselves to start overlooking things. We get comfortable with a lower standard instead of constantly looking to do a little better within the context of our lives. When we do that any gains we may have made in whatever areas of life get lost and losing ground can put us back or even behind where we started. Nobody wants to do that.

Sometimes helping someone out that is being taken advantage of, done wrong or victimized, in as much as it is helping them can really be helping ourselves. This is because if we let it happen to them today, it may be us or our loved ones tomorrow. The whole idea that we just allow things to happen to someone else around us and just cross our fingers that it doesn't happen or worse to us thinking it can't ever happen to us, is wishful thinking.

When we allow corrosion to take hold in one area of a piece of machinery and don't address it, it may spread. If so, when we finally decide to address it, we will have a worse problem than had we just taken care of it in the first place. So it is in our communities, schools, places of employment and elsewhere. As such often enough somewhere on some level each act of selflessness on behalf of another contains a bit of selfishness on behalf of ourselves – a bit of self defense if you would.

Between 2003 and 2006 I went through an experience of harassment and I don't write that to cause people to feel sorry for me. It is to introduce how I began to feel more compassion for and understand the plight of others. At the time I pretty much kept my head down in life, had plans to go to college and better myself and get a humble piece of the American Dream for myself. Just a decent income, a house, family and perhaps at some point my own business.

At the time the economy was not so bad and that was not considered shooting too high. I certainly wasn't looking to be a millionaire as a landscape architect. Lol. Just being able to stay middle class and provide for my loved ones would have been enough. Despite that, trouble came looking for me.

When I went through my experience there were some people that helped me and I must admit it really did make a difference in getting through the experience. Whether they were people that were attending school with me or people from outside it really did make a difference. Even the smallest things could help get me through the day a little easier. I greatly appreciate those people - all of them.

Though harassment at school and in the workplace due to things like discrimination happen all the time it isn't something we talk about much. In fact there is so much else going on in the world often enough we just think about it as having gone away. As it's true blatant forms of harassment have mostly gone away, the manifestation of deep down prejudices within the workplace and elsewhere still occur.

Harassment in such places still happens and an example can be seen in a recent case that went before the Supreme Court. In this interview with PBS, the National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle discusses the case :

“JUDY WOODRUFF: This was a case, as we said, brought by an Army Reservist who was fired in his position as a hospital technician.

“MARCIA COYLE: Right. Victor Staub worked for Proctor Hospital. His immediate supervisor and her supervisor were extremely hostile to his Reservist obligations. […] They showed their hostility in a variety of ways, including comments to co-workers and creating what he said were special rules for him that he inevitably broke and then put disciplinary reports in his personnel file.

“Back in 2004, one of the supervisors went to the vice president of human relations at the hospital to complain about Staub. And on the basis of that complaint and the vice president's review of his personnel file, she fired Staub. He sued the hospital under the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act saying that hostility to his Reservist duties was the motivating factor for his firing, and that violated the law.

“A jury agreed, awarded him about $58,000 in damages. A lower federal appellate court reversed. And he brought the case to the Supreme Court. […] the court said here that the hospital was liable. Why? An employer is at fault when one of its agents takes an action based on discriminatory animus, with the intention to cause -- and here, in fact, did cause -- the adverse job decision, which was the firing of Staub.” (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june11/scotus_03-01.html)

Another description of what happened can be found in an article from the Kansas City Employment Lawyer Blog which states, “His supervisor repeatedly crafted the work schedule so that Staub was responsible for shifts during which he also had Reserves commitments. The supervisor was known to make disparaging comments regarding military responsibilities and allegedly requested that one of his co-workers, 'help her get rid of him.' A disciplinary warning was issued to Staub in which he was accused of violating a company rule. At a later date, he was accused again for violating the rule. Finally, the hospital's vice president of human resources was involved and terminated Mr. Staub's employment, having relied on the supervisor's accusations and reports.” (http://www.kansascityemploymentlawyerblog.com/2011/06/supreme-court-rules-employers.html)

Creating special rules and pressuring others within the environment to cooperate with such illegal activity under the sometimes accompanying threat of penalty either implied or explicit is the kind of thing I went through. I was discriminated against not for the same reason, but in some similar ways experienced a manufactured hostile environment designed for the purpose of harassing me until I quit or was forced out etc, which I won't go into now. It should be noted that people coming forward to help either to intervene, or to lend quiet support was always greatly appreciated.

My experience was not unique in the sense of discriminatory harassment happening. Moreover, it occurs because people are willing to allow the liberties of those around them to be trampled upon more and more as long as it is done quietly. When that happens what people fail to realize it that it is happening to them at the same time. This is because the looser the enforcement of laws, regulations and proper conduct becomes in places like schools or the workplace etc, the higher the likelihood it will happen to them or someone they know at some point.

In any free society the only way the rights of the individual can be protected is if we all realize we are in it together despite our differences. That's the only method to preserve freedom and what we believe to be our way of life. The further we allow ourselves to be divided, the easier it becomes to conquer us.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.