The other day I was at a petition table for a small Amnesty International club, trying to get passersby to sign. It was for a group of women in a mid-western country who had been peacefully demonstrating against the regime there, and had been thrown in jail and reportedly tortured there, by the regime, all for peacefully speaking their minds. A boy came by with a group of friends, and when I explained the situation, and how we needed more signatures so we could send the petition to the ambassador of the country and make an impact, and put pressure on him (it was definitely a him - woman rights were nonexistent in that country) to release the women, everyone in the group signed. Except the boy. I talked to him, giving the situation in the less-cencored version I saw in my mind, getting more and more agitated as he continued to remain impassive. "It doesn't affect me,"he said, "So why should I care?" This made me furious. It did affect him - people were getting inhumanely treated and suppressed, fellow human beings fully equal to him, and he didn't care?!?
So I tried to put it into a perspective someone this selfish could connect with. "Okay, so let's say you're a woman in this country - "
"I'm not a woman," he interrupted me. "I can't comprehend that."
"Well, for this purpose, you can just pretend you're a woman - "
"No I can't. This doesn't work. I can't fathom what it's like to be a woman because I'm not one."
How can anyone be this closed minded? Didn't he have any imagination? He couldn't help someone because their misfortune, no matter how extreme, didn't affect him, and he couldn't place himself in their shoes because he wasn't in their shoes. This boy was missing some major aspects of life.
My impatience increased. I spun a world for him where women were seen as the superior sex, and he lived in a country where he was especially suppressed. Then, when trying only to say his opinion, he was thrown in jail and tortured, and no one did anything because he was a man. He didn't matter. Then, some people wanted to help him, but they couldn't get enough signatures for anyone to listen to them, because some brat couldn't pick up a pencil and write his name. Or, in this world, it would be a girl who wouldn't sign, as she was of the 'superior' sex. Did he not care because they were women? I wanted to slap his damn closed mind open... and shove in some nice hot coals, and slam it shut again. Then how would he like it?
But he wouldn't sign. I even explained to him how no one would be able to track him down, which they wouldn't care to do anyways, and if he was especially paranoid he could write his signature really illegibly. But he wouldn't. "I can't just put my name on some document." It wasn't just 'some document'. It was a petition to save innocent lives from brutal, inhuman and unjust torture and maybe even from death, and it would not affect him at all except for helping another human being.
But he wouldn't. And our petition was just that much less convincing. In fact, I think we got to 49 signatures.
Imagine how 50 would've looked. Much more influential.
So because of that one boy, those women are much less close to being released.
To quote Shakespeare, he is a, "jarring dismal-dreaming blind-worm!" His, "sin's not accidental, but a trade."
Don't be like him. Help people. Be a good person.
Or for all I care, you can go to Hell.

... I was going to end the post there. But then I realize that that last line implied that I don't care. But I do. I care so much it can be painful. It's a curse I have - I care about everything, whether it affects me or not, and I care a ton. That's why I'm writing this blog. That's why it's so hard for me to understand people - which I can barely call them - like that boy. And it's why I would care if you went to Hell. Because if you were like that boy, I'd want you to experience the pain those other humans had to, that you didn't care enough about to do anything. And once you'd experienced what they'd experience, I'd want you to experience it again and again until you cared.
Just because you were born into a place that is better off than others doesn't mean you might've just as easily been put in their place. And if that were the case, wouldn't you want someone else to care?
So do care. That's the first step. Care about things going on around you, injustices and the harming of others.
And once you care, you'll realize that you can't just sit there and not act.
Whether you look at it like saving yourself, for if you are like that boy, don't you think whatever the final judgement is, it'll go badly for you? or to actually help others, you'll care. And you'll help them.
And I'll thank you.