Cowardice

So anyway, I'm not proud of my results there on the race itself, but....I guess I will blame the heat. My friend's didnt have trouble in the hot weather, but I race in the cold. For example, tonight it's 58 degrees.

Did my first open water swim last night. It was scary at first, and also cold, 58 again. BRR.
The water was 68, which was quite pleasant, and we just swam about 1/2 a mile. One goes out into the lake, swims around a big yellow duckie and then comes back. The duck doesn't seem to have a name, but you can hold on to him if you get tired, as long as you don't advance your position. You can also backfloat or doggie paddle or side stroke or whatever, as long as you get there. My freestyle needs a bit of adjustment for open water swim as evidenced by my first breath of air turning into a giant breath of water from all the splashing. I panicked and thought I was going to die until Tina made me calm down.

"Relax," she said. "breathe in. You're ok."
"I know I'm ok, I just can't believe I freaked out like that. I never freak out. I have been swimming in open water my whole life."
"But this is different."
I kept laughing.

It is different, though.... there's 70 other people wanting to swim as fast as they can, passing you, and suddenly you realize that all of your swimming here is....different.  Tina promises me that 90% of the people who try this freak out their first time. It was really quite funny that I was one of them.

Tonight I called the cops on someone for the first time in my time in Minnesota. Crazy dude was pushing his girlfriend around in public. Now I'm scared to walk home alone and I'm also scared for that woman.

I know you can't solve all of the domestic violence and abuse situations in the world. I know police intervention makes them a lot worse half of the time.  But boy is it disgusting to stand by and do nothing.

In the end, I can remember one person standing up for me and I desperately, pleadingly talked them out of it. It would have made things worse, much worse--but I also wonder and look around at my family and wonder why they didn't step in sooner.  Did they know it would have made things worse or were they cowards? Or did they simply not know, was it simply that close to the surface?
Ironically, I was thinking of these things independently of my call to the police today. Perhaps it was just a weird luck that I'd witness something that disgusting on the way home. Perhaps that man will think twice before he pushes his girlfriend and kid around. Perhaps he stopped screaming at some point.
But I doubt it.