“If you sin by not stepping up and offering yourself as a witness to something you’ve heard or seen in cases of wrongdoing, you’ll be held responsible. (Leviticus 5:1 MSG) Remember how uncle Ben dies in Spider-Man? Spoiler Alert: he gets shot by the same robber that Peter Parker conveniently decides to ignore. At which point, Peter Parker becomes a vigilante superhero for New York City, vowing never again to ignore wrong doing by foiling the plots of evildoers. The famous quote that drives him to this call of arms: “with great power comes great responsibility.” Let’s check back into reality for a moment. How many times have we allowed wrong to be done in front of our eyes and done nothing about it because: a) we just don’t care (callousness); b) we know the culprits personally; or c) we don’t want to deal with the hassle of law enforcement? I can name an instance in all three situations in 2013 alone! Let me point out here that this is not a call for you to snitch. This is a call to reflect on our values. More than that, this is a call for us to influence people and society around us by the measure of our values, assuming that our values are godly and Biblical and not extremist, and not the values that are subjectively determined either– I’m talking about the universal ones that all decent societies have their laws founded on. We often ask ourselves and our friends, “gee, the world is so messed up, this is why we’re all going to be extinct soon….” And you wonder why. It’s because you and I don’t exert the energy to speak up or say what’s up and every time we don’t, that’s on us. When we fail to do what’s right and speak up for what’s right in our lives, we have to answer for that. Doing nothing is the same as being guilty of the act you witnessed yourself. This is something we so easily forget in today’s haste. Peter Parker had the propensity to avoid sticking up for what’s right because he never got a fair shake. Give the people around you a better chance than others gave to you– speak up and do what’s right.