That's enough, I decide and grab my son's hand, pushing the stroller toward her. The moment passes and I become one more passive bystander to the epidemic of child abuse in this city. You are undoubtedly familiar with this scene. You have witnessed it, perhaps in a slightly different form, in the mall, supermarket, village square or subway. An adult strikes, mishandles or verbally abuses a small child.
People look away or look horrified, but nobody does anything.
Perhaps you thought to intervene but wondered if it was your place. Perhaps like me, you chickened out. You feel anger at the abusive parents, yet you also realize that many of them are caught in a lethal cycle of poverty, unemployment, lack of education and despair. You realize that many of them mistake child abuse for discipline. You realize that a frightening number of them are children themselves.