In college we spend a lot of time focusing solely on ourselves, but have you ever thought of the thousands of other students around you?

Throughout the day we seem to just move straight ahead. We wake up sit in class for a few hours and then head home. In this mundane, repetitive life it’s like we can’t even seem to fathom that other living, breathing and feeling things reside in the space around us.

We watch terrible things happen right in front of our eyes and we do nothing because we tell ourselves “It is not my problem” or “Someone else will handle it”.

That girl stressed out and crying in the library. . . Not my problem.

That dude cussing out his girlfriend in the parking lot. . . Not my problem.

That freshman having to sit alone in Landrum. . . Not my problem.

That guy just put something in that girl’s drink, but I don’t know her . . .Not my problem.

Well first and foremost: it is your problem, or at least it will become your problem. When we sit around and pretend like nothing is wrong we normalize these things in society. We cannot continue to sit around and talk about how messed up our society is then remain silent when it comes to actually doing things to fix it.

Secondly, how can you be so sure that someone else is going to come along? You can’t. You could have been in the right place at the right time to make a huge impact in someone’s life and instead chose to look the other way. That’s a lot of unneeded guilt that you don’t want to have resting on your soul. Philosopher Edmund Burke said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” and I believe that to be true.

You are your brother’s keeper. It is your responsibility to care for and watch over your fellow human beings. So I challenge you to actually stand up and do something because if you don’t, who will?