A Subway Story

 As some of you may know I attend college in the city. Because I attend college in this beautiful city, I take the subway frequently. So I got on the subway and I was thinking about what lies ahead class, friends, food the works. I suddenly hear this earth-shattering scream that completely snaps me outside my element. It was the scream of a woman. I didn't know which woman, but I knew it happened in my subway cart. So I say out loud "What happened? " As all the pedestrians swivel their heads in different directions, following the scream, a lady stutters, and confides "he kicked me". This subway cart had a minimum of 15 people in it (excluding children). After the lady responded I identified where she was located, and then identified her attacker standing outside the subway on the platform. This man had kicked her for no reason, and it was a stranger. I am disappointed, but not surprised to know that nobody got up and intervened. I feel guilty that I didn't get up and intervene, but I was thinking how rational is that?  He disrespects women what is me getting in his face gonna do? What is me internalizing this experience as if it's my own going to do?  I felt guilty for feeling guilty because obviously, this lady is the victim in the scenario. But when I heard/saw what had happened, I was deeply disturbed I felt it. The empathy of being a woman is grand. My disappointment morphed into a rage when I looked at all the men who simply went back to their phones, and glanced around the subway cart, as if what just happened, didn't happen. Why are we not actionable when we see men promoting violence and engaging in unacceptable behavior? We have let boys be boys so much that we are desensitized to such cruelty. I think that woman got attacked, sat on the subway distraught, and then just went about her day. I think that man engaged in something, very depraved, and also went about his day unchecked and unpunished how pathetic.