Here’s your feel-good story for the day, faith in humanity restored!
With all the hate, bigotry, and intolerance escalating around the world and in our own country, it’s easy to find yourself disillusioned and discouraged about the state of humanity. But, when bad things happen, it’s important to remember to “look for the helpers,” as Fred Rogers famously said.
Well, this latest helper is more than that, he is a true hero.
Meet Michael Rich. He’s a marketing assistant in Boston.
Original image | Funny Or DieMichael, like many Americans, commutes to and from work via public transit. Usually it’s a pretty uneventful ride, and as Michael sat aboard the train in a handicap-designated seat (because there were no other seats available so it’s fine), the trip home on Monday night seemed, at first, like any other. But after a few stops, as the train started to empty, he saw a young Muslim woman being verbally harassed to a brutal degree by a middle-aged white man who had just boarded, for a considerable amount of time. At least half the ride. Somewhere in the ballpark of, say, 15 to 20 minutes.
He seethed about what had just transpired all the way from the station to his apartment. How could this have happened in the year 2020? And in America?! Isn’t this the home of the free?! And no one did anything?! Horrible! As soon as he got home, he knew what he had to do. He promptly opened his laptop, hopped on Facebook, and typed the most moving, heartfelt status about it, voicing his disgust with the racism he witnessed just mere feet from him, for —once again— at least a good 15 minutes.
Well said, Michael. Bravo.
It would have been so easy for him to ignore a heinous act of racial violence like this and go about his night as usual. But that’s not Michael. No, instead, he stepped in and took action, writing a heartfelt and emotional Facebook status about it that surely made all his other white Facebook friends shake their heads and go, “How awful!” before scrolling further down their newsfeed.
And, folks, he is so right! It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we DO need to do better as a nation to combat racism and to protect the people in this country who suffer from it every single day. That’s why it’s so important for you to stand up and write social media posts like this so other people know you are not a racist, and therefore not part of the problem. So get out there! Tell the world about the heart-wrenching act of racism you stood by and had to witness! If we want to see change, we have to start being that change, just like Michael Rich.
