There is no Safety Without Risk and What You Risk Reveals What You Value Essay Example for Free

There is no Safety Without Risk and What You Risk Reveals What You Value Essay Everyone at one time or another are faced with challenges that goes against what they know is the right thing to do.   Sacrifices are a necessary part of life. We all have to make decisions as to what sacrifices and values we will give up in exchange to be accepted by a certain social class, age group, the community, the church, promotions, jobs and so on. Very emotionally sound people are capable of giving up popularity and acceptance, and choosing isolation to keep their values. These people almost never are persuaded to choose the wrong path, be one of the crowd, giving in to peer pressure.  Ã‚   Some people have their fears and personal conflicts that make their lives difficult because they act against their beliefs and do what others expect of them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   No one can influence my personal beliefs or opinions. I am not impressed with money or status, do not wear or purchase clothes-or on the other hand avoid wearing clothes-because everyone else wears certain fashions, or disapproves of what I am wearing. I am willing to risk hatred, enmity, a certain status, social approval to keep my values. I determine peoples character by their behavior, not their age, neighborhood, race, monetary status, or any external features. Of course, what they are on the inside shows up on the outside. Substance abuse still affects people’s mental and physical health, whether it is a licensed nurse or drug dealer misusing and distributing drugs. People will always show you who they are, especially when put under pressure or a third party becomes involved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In 1964, a woman named Catherine Genovese was stabbed to death in New York City one night walking home from work. Thirty eight people were reported witnessing the attack. No one did anything to stop the attack. Certainly, someone witnessing an attack involving someone getting murdered is going to hear some distinctive screaming. Many people hearing the attack decided this dispute was none of their business. So what if they would have intervened in an incident that was â€Å"none of their business,† called the police anonymously and it turned out to be nothing. People did not want to risk their image of being one of these old nosey neighbors who peeks in the blind wanting to see trouble.   Should I ever hear someone getting stabbed, I would risk being identified as a nosey person who got involved in something that was none of her business. I could not live with knowing I could have saved a life, anyone’s life and did not act on it that instant moment. I would risk having the entire city gossip about me, calling me paranoid if it involved potentially saving someone’s life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I remember of an incident when I was about 12 years old. This took place at the dance studio I was going to. We were talking about our costumes for an upcoming performance in a huge theatre. I was eager to go to my dance instructor’s car and get the costume catalogs.   She parked her car on the side, towards the back. She did not want to be in the way of parents and other dancers coming into the dance studio. It was about 9:30 P.M. When I went out there, I saw a group of boys talking, but their tone of voice sounded very threatening and demanding to each other. I do remember seeing a very shiny knife in the dark. I wanted to see if one of my friends from dancing was out there. I walked up to the crowd, and asked them what where they doing. The boys or men outside   quickly they all got into their very nice, expensive   sports cars and drove away. Not a one of them seemed to have known I was there or acknowledged me. I did not understand why they reacted when I walked up to them, but all acted like I was invisible. I thought I was going to save someone, anyone from getting hurt. I told many people, and got severely fussed at. For the next week or so, I had lots of trouble, from teachers, other kids, even the school principle kept calling me in the office. The secretaries were very ugly to me.   I am sure the incident at the dance studio had something to do with this. I thought to myself, I did not care if the whole school or my parents turned against me. I stopped a fight. Of course today, I understand why my parents would have been concerned. A twelve year old female going to ask a group of boys or young men in their twenties or so could be very dangerous. Also, a twelve year old who never knew that people actually do get in fist fights is incapable of stopping gang violence or obvious drug deal. I did not realize a drug deal was going on, or that drugs even caused such incidences. I guess I thought this was older brothers of the girls I was dancing with. I was following the values my parents taught me the last 12 years. But they never taught me about situations like this.   I did not know people actually held knives or guns or even got into physical violence with each other. At twelve years old, I had no concept of that, except maybe on television. Of course this is a very unusual situation. Today, I would still risk disapproval from everyone to save someone else’s life. Today, the only reason I could think of the school treating me like I did something wrong was those boys were a bunch of judges and politician’s sons. Today, of course I would be smarter about it saving someone’s life if I thought they were in jeopardy. Knowledge and human compassion should be part of our every day lives so we can help others who at the same time can help us to continue to develop our great society.