Tuesday, July 30, 2002

How far are you willing to go to fight for what’s right?

I’m sure we all can see ourselves fighting for the right thing if we were the heroes of a fantasy novel and being attacked by evil incarnate, but how about right and wrong in our day-to-day lives? How far are we willing to go in our modern society to fight for what’s right?

I’m convinced that I don’t fight for what’s right enough. This was prompted by an event at Otakon: On Friday, I skimmed a bulletin board at the con. My eyes fell on an obviously fan-made poster which featured some random post-modern poetry, but the backdrop was a drawing of a nude little girl.

I shook my head at the outright wrongness of using pre-teen nudity primarily for shock value (besides clearly being against con rules to post anything containing nudity of that sort), and made a mental note to check back later to see if the con staff had taken it down. I looked at the board the next day, and sure enough, the poster had been removed.

For some reason, I kept thinking about this poster. I wondered if it wasn’t a member of the con staff who had removed the poster. What if it was just a random passersby who had noticed this, realized that it was clearly inappropriate for the con, and removed it? Surely anyone would have been in the right for taking down that poster.

Then I wondered, why wasn’t I the random passersby?

I saw that poster, I knew it was wrong on several levels, and yet I did nothing. I could have pulled that poster off the bulletin board, and I would have been right for doing so. But I didn’t do it.

Moreover, it wouldn’t have cost me anything to do it. I wasn’t facing persecution for this. In fact, if anyone had asked what I was doing, I probably would have received a pat on the back for my actions.

But I did nothing. It disturbs me.