Citizen or Subject

With the exception of the major media outlets that seem to want to downplay the event there is lots of commentary concerning a homicide that occurred yesterday in England. A member of the British military was run down by a car on the sidewalk near an Army installation in Woolwich and then literally butchered by the perpetrators.

The killers remained on scene and were recorded by multiple phone cameras as they taunted bystanders and offered their “reason” for committing such a public killing. The film clips clearly show the killers and their victim and more importantly the large number of people who were observing the incident or who walked through the crime scene without breaking step. Despite the many witnesses no one appeared to want to intervene, either to stop the attack or detain the killers.

A few years ago an equally reprehensible group of perpetrators hijacked and crashed airplanes in an American day of tragedy. One man on one of the planes responded during the attack and tried to take back the plane. Despite the passengers efforts the plane crashed in an open field and all were killed.

What needs to be celebrated is that as citizens of this country the passengers recognized that they had both a right and an obligation to fight terrorism. The contrast with the actions of people who were present at yesterday’s incident is clear…we are citizens and a responsible few of us know that direct action is preferable to standing around and doing nothing.