Issues of visual intelligence & personal involvement

Visual Intelligence
[Thanks, Anthony, for finding this story.]

Well let's start with the "lighter" topic. Here's the link to the story of the controversial billboard that was up for a week or so in the "viagra triangle" here in Chicago. So much has been said about it that I think I'll refrain from further comments, well, except to say there is no such thing as an "innocuous ad." They all deliver messages.

Personal Involvement
warning: there are images of a dead body so stop reading now if this is something you cannot handle!

Just when I'm beginning to have some faith in the goodness that can be found in the human race, this happens: This past Saturday my brother, my cousin and I went downtown to the Shedd Aquarium (my cousin was visiting Chicago for the first time) and Millennium Park. As we crossed the railway tracks south of the Art Institute heading towards Buckingham fountain and the lake we decided to pause and take check out the trains passing below the bridge. I happened to glance towards the train platform where passengers were waiting to board and noticed that there was a man lying face down at the far south end of the platform, his satchel lying next to him. I focused my camera on him, zoomed in and noticed that a small pool of blood had formed around his head. At the moment a south bound train pulled up and all the waiting passengers boarded the train and left. We waited for a few minutes expecting someone to come and assess the situation. When no one showed up I yelled down and got the attention of one of the passengers who had showed up for the next train. I pointed out the person lying there and he at first indicated to me that someone had called and then he walked over to look at the person lying down. He then walked back into the station and returned moments later with one of the train station attendants. She took a look at the person lying there, and after pausing for a while pulled out her phone and called the police. A few moments later a squad car pulled up and two officers got out, ran across the tracks and approached the body. At this point, after taking a few shots of the events transpiring, my brother, my cousin and I decided to continue to the aquarium, since everything seemed to be under control (at this point we weren't sure if the person was dead or just seriously injured). When we were walking back about an hour and a half later, we decided to go past the scene and see if we could figured out what happened. When we got there we looked down and saw that the person had been moved into a refrigeration truck (confirming that he was dead). There were still blood stains on the platform with evidence that there had been attempt to at least partially clean up part of it.

So here's what's tripping me out: Lord knows how long the person had been lying there, I know that at least one train load of passengers had seen the body, ignored it, boarded the train and headed out to meet the next part of their lives. Why hadn't someone bothered to, at the very least, call the 911 or inform one of the train station attendants that there was a person lying face down at the far end of the platform? If someone had checked in on the person is there a possibility that the person might be alive today? Who knows, but the sad thing is that nobody wanted to involve themselves in the situation. Have we become so jaded and desensitized as a society that when we see what could possibly be a dead body we just keep moving along without any compassion or desire to see what may have befallen our fellow human? Or is it that we have become so self-centered that the idea of taking a few seconds off of our busy schedule is not entertained even if doing so might be the difference between life and death of a man lying face down on a platform?

In one of my classes this quarter I've been learning about issues of injustice, hegemony and counter-hegemony and over the last couple of weeks the focus has been on the myriad reasons for why the Holocaust took place and why Germany and its people could carry out such an atrocity and also how many countries were indirect participants in this genocide (several countries refused to allow Jewish refugees into their borders). Much of this happened because no one wanted to be inconvenienced, no one wanted to get involved if they could help it. Look at Rwanda, Darfur and other regions around the world were atrocities that could have been prevented were allowed to come to fruition because those who could have stopped the horrific violence were more concerned with their own affairs. Does the indifference of a few people on a train platform who are ignoring a dead body really compare to the atrocities mentioned above? A resounding "YES!" If people are not moved by what they see in their own personal backyard where they can see, smell, touch and directly determine the fate of one of their own, what's to make any of us care or respond to the pain and suffering of people in other parts of the city, our state, our country or on other continents?

I know there is good in our souls, and I haven't lost faith in humanity, but I'm glad I experienced this because it brought me back to the reality of our human condition and to the reality that is our human nature with its propensity towards selfishness, self preservation, and callousness. It also has highlighted to me the importance to examine myself and make sure that I don't become so focused on myself that I forget to be a voice for those who cannot speak, hands for those who cannot help themselves and a defender for the defenseless.

I'm done venting...at least for now.