Empathy isn't enough, must react

Last friday, I was in the waiting line for my titre de séjour, in the Grenoble Préfecture. They just shifted the counters for foreigners, into the roofless yard in between the main entrance and the main building. The counters themselves have roof though. In fact, there are four of these counters built inside a really small air-conditioned office, so small that they actually won't allow people to wait inside the office, which on the other hand is impossible to do so also. One has to wait outside until one of the counters is available. 

It was raining heavily that day. With only two out of four counters were opened, long queue was inevitable. Luckily, the main entrance has big enough eaves for people to wait under it, instead of under the rain. And that is when the confusion came in. The queue under the eaves had some distance away from the office, which made the queue seeming like lining up for other counter. So some new arrivals might think that nobody was lining up for the foreigner's counters, and cut the line. Many would realize eventually, but there was these two teens cutting the line even though they knew where the real queue was. I wanted to ask them to queue up and almost did it. But it is embarrassing that it took me so long to react. I actually stood there doing nothing and hoping the others might stand up against them. 

Finally, a guy took action, asking them to line up. The teens said they only wanted to ask a simple question. The guy said, everybody else was lining up, and insisted that they must played by the rules also. But the teens just wouldn't listen. In the end, the good guy asked the queue to move to the front of the office to force those teens to line up like others and the strenght of the majority prevailed. Now the queue was under the rain but eventually it stopped not long afterwards. 

I felt so embarrassed for the fact that I didn't react. In this world we need more people like the good guy. But sadly, many people are like me, not reacting against injustice. 

And it seems to me that one of the ways that we don't come into this world knowing how to be a person is that we don't really know what to do about empathy. Like the weird thing about self-consciousness is that you become aware of the fact that, you can never fully feel someone else's pain and someone else can never fully feel your pain. ......The question is how do we get to a place where we can empathize with each other enough, to take care of each other enough, to get through this vale of tears.

- John Green, vlogbrothers - 

I think many of us have the empathy with us, just like I can totally understand how the people in long queue would feel if I cut the line. However, obviously we are not taking care of each other enough, and cannot even achieve a simple act, like standing up against those teens who cut the line.