A short time ago, I wrote a comment about how the press deals with the events around Dominik Brunner’ death. It reminded me of a situation I witnessed more than once when using public transportation in the Munich S-Bahn or underground system:
A frustrated mother with her whining child sits near me. (As the mother sees it,) the child is being very naughty, not obeying the (allegedly) so important rules of good manners. The mother is annoyed and makes the child look small. The situation escalates.
Mother yells at the child, child gets even grumpier. Child starts to cry. Mother beats child until all resistance is broken.
What can I do? How I would like to intervene! But on the other hand, my intervention might make the situation worse – the child might later have to take the blame for what I did.
How much moral courage do you need in order to intervene in this kind of situation? First and foremost, there is no particular danger to me. For me personally, an intervention seems to be risk-free.
But is it also reasonable? And what would be the best strategy? I cannot say. And I already dread the next time it happens.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
I already described this kind of experience to some of my friends. They reacted by saying: “I do not believe this!” However, it is the truth.
If you ask the Japanese about what spontaneously comes to mind when they think Germany, the first answer will be the names of famous composers. The second answer is: Germany, isn’t that the country where children are beaten …
In our country, no matter what social class we are talking, there is still far too much violence against small children committed by mothers and fathers.
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