Things are not always what they appear to be.

A little girl at a playground falls over and skins her knee.  It seems that no one notices except an elderly man who is walking past.  He goes over to the girl.  The girl's mother finally notices as the man takes the girl's hand and helps her up and looks at her legs.  The mother assumes he is a paedophile trying to harm her daughter and becomes abusive.  He only stopped to help the child because it appeared like no one else would.  I stepped in to stop the woman from hitting the old man.  Do we want to live in a society where everyone walks on by and never helps a child in need?

A father takes his young daughter swimming.  Everyone thinks he's being a good parent, in the water interacting with his child.  "If only more fathers did that", everyone says.  What I see, that they don't, is the way that he is touching her under the water - not only inappropriate but blatently illegal.  I received a mouthfull of abuse from several people that assumed he was innocent, when the police arrive to arrest him and the public find out it was me that phoned them.  I was a lifeguard, it was my job to protect the patrons.  Even if I wasn't obligated by my job to phone the police, I would have done the same thing, and I was the one that had to defend myself.  Do we want to live in a society where such child abuse is ignored and children have to suffer?

A man walking down the street is staggering and swaying, having trouble staying upright and can't seem to focus on anything.  People cross the road to avoid him and assume he is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  He wanders on a little further and collapses.  People walk past him as he lays dying, tired of the increasing number of drunks and druggos on the street.  I called an ambulance.   In actual fact, he has just suffered a stroke and is in desperate need of an ambulance.  Do we want to live in a society where innocent people in need of medical help are literally walked over and ignored?

A separated man and woman are arguing loudly in a public place about their rights over who is entitled to see the children and when.  They are both trying to take the children away from the other and the children are screaming.  Amoung it all are accusations of abuse, mentions of court orders, and a lot of blaming the other.  Some witnesses step in to help, assuming the man is trying to take the children from the mother against a court order, and hold the man back and allow the mother to take the children to safety.  The police have been called and arrive to arrest the man.  It is then that the truth is discovered.  The mother is in fact the abusive parent, the court order is against her, and now there is a man-hunt to find her before she causes serious harm to the children.  I gave the police a description of the vehicle she left in.  Do we want to live in a world where we judge everyone by a stereotype and put people's lives in danger because we can't stop to consider all the possibilities?

A man starts working late, but he doesn't appear to be earning any extra money.  His interest in being intimate with his wife is starting to dwindle.  After several months she draws to the conclusion that he must be having an affair.  Instead of talking to him about it, she figures that what is good for him should be good for her and she goes out and cheats on him while he is at work.  Revenge is not so sweet when she finds out that he took the extra hours to get the money that he had been saving, to surprise her by paying for a romantic holiday for the two of them to a place she had always wanted to go.  As for the intimacy issue, he was working so was he simply too tired.  He was taking some of my shifts at work.  Do we want to live in a world where we always assume the worst, trust no one, seek revenge instead of trying to just sort a problem out, harm others by not thinking things through properly, and become abusive in one form or another at the slightest provocation?

 Yes, all these situation were all real.  Assumptions can help keep us safe, but it can also be a very hostile and even dangerous way to live.  Whenever I see something that looks wrong or out of place, I question whether everything is as it seems, or could I be interpreting it wrong?  Our legal system leaves some room for a thing called "reasonable doubt", why can't we?  Surely we are more intelligent and flexible as individuals that a written system of law!  If a situation can have two or more interpretations, we should be wary and careful to not get caught up in the worst possible scenario, but be prepared to deal with the situation appropriately just in case it is completely innocent.  As much as we don't want to be hurt, we should avoid hurting anyone else as well.  We don't like people judging us, we should avoid being judgemental as well.  It doesn't hurt to politely ask a question.

The world we live in will never be a completey safe place, but it could be a little bit nicer if we could all be a little less presumptuous.