Courage wakes cowards
I’ll tell you a true story of a woman abused in broad daylight, people watching like cowards, and my friend’s courage finally waking them up.
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I’ll tell you a true story of a woman abused in broad daylight, people watching like cowards, and my friend’s courage finally waking them up.
It’s midday Saturday. Sun’s high, streets buzzing—cafes, bakery, friends, fun. Then, chaos erupts. A man in his 40s, dark clothes, hurls curses at a woman in her 30s. She’s trying to get away but he continually grabs her and throws her against the wall.
“Stop. Please!” She screams.
He yanks her hair, fling her back, pins her, roaring, '“Shut the f*** up, you bloody whore!”
Minutes of this hell, and the crowd—shopkeepers, passersby—just stare, phones out recording, frozen in fear.
My friend sees through a glass door that there’s some commotion. But he can’t see what exactly is happening. He steps out the door onto the sidewalk. Sees the crowd totally paralysed, hears her screaming for help.
She tries to flee, ducking under the abuser’s arm. He catches her torso, then grabs her throat and slams her again.
“You better not f***ing try that sh*t again. You bitch!”
His right hand smacks her face. It looks like this situation has been ongoing for a few solid minutes.
My friend within seconds of witnessing this, walks towards the man, eyes locked, with a firm voice:
“Is there a problem here?”
“Um… no, no problem.”
The man lets go of the woman. She’s in tears. Left cheek is red with a slight hand imprint.
My friend turns to the woman, “Are you okay?” She nods, clings to her pursue, and bolts. Then he glares at the man, “Don’t do that again.”
The man cowers, nodding furiously.
Suddenly the crowd finds their spines and start to move in. Two men mumble to my friend afterwards, “If anything had happened, we were ready to jump in and help you.”
Courage reveals cowardice. It’s like a candle in a dark room.
Courage isn’t magic.
No potion makes you courageous. It’s a muscle built through small actions in our daily lives.
I asked my friend:
“Weren’t you scared? He could have had a knife or a gun?”
“Of course. But in those 10 seconds, I knew that either I risk injury or I walk away, letting the woman continue to be abused on the streets. I’d rather get injured than be a bystander recording on a phone, giving evil permission.”
Any of the bystanders could have acted minutes before my friend arrived. But they didn’t.
In Bushido: The Soul of Japan, Inazo Nitobe teaches us that we must strive to embody our beliefs even at the risk of death. This is what separated the samurai from the rest.
So remember we have to make a choice daily: Build courage through killing our vices or be another cowardly bystander.
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