Week Six: Human Dignity Violation

This week’s assignment was to research a violation of human dignity that has occurred in my lifetime.  Well, the only one I could think of is the one that occurred in my own backyard.  [I will be changing the names to protect the people mentioned] On April 5, 2008, Jane Doe, a sixth grader at Pleasant Hills Middle school, was killed in a two-vehicle collision.  The young man accused of killing her pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault while driving under the influence.  The young man, who was 17 at the time, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 when the crash occurred, had marijuana in his system and was driving 79 mph in a 35 mph speed zone.

I knew the girl and her family, and the boy who killed her.  I sat in front of this boy for most of life in school.  I would talk to him; everyone knew he did drugs and alcohol.  However, no one did anything.  Everyone stood around and watched it happen.  I watched it happen.  I did nothing.  I think back every day, could I have done something to change the course of events.  Could I have said, “Stop drinking or stop making stupid choices, or something to that degree?”  I feel like this violation could have been prevented.   If the boy was given the time and attention, he needed then he would not have gone down the road he did. This boy grew up in a bad family, where alcohol, drugs, and violence were prevalent.  His human dignity was almost non-apparent.  He lost himself, and we did nothing but stand around.  The community felt like we caused this to happen, we all felt out dignity go down.  We felt ashamed of ourselves.  For me, I felt the world on my shoulders. 

For my society to keep going on after this is hard and painful tragedy.  Due to the fact, that we lost someone young and special, and it damaged the lives of the people of whom she touched.  The community was wounded deeply, but slowly was healing.  The society started to change its way of thinking.  By creating more law enforcement on the roads to watch for speeding and drunk driving, educating the schools with drunk driving seminars, and creating overall awareness for people who have friends who drink and do drugs.  I have seen the community become safer to walk and drive in.  I feel safer in my community, but why did this act against human dignity need to happen.  Why did someone have to die? Why could not anyone do anything about it?  Why did we not speak up and help the boy to save the girl?  I feel that these violations will no matter what, and we must learn from these.  This is incredible hard to say, but from the ashes of our death; we will rise stronger and smarter.  The only thing we can do is move forward, learn from our mistakes, and keeping going, keep living.