When any facet of society condones injustice of any variety, we are faced with two options: stand up or stand by.

You have the choice to take the Robert Frost road-less-traveled-by, or you can select the opportunity of comfort and ease — that of a bystander.

If you’re a sentient, living person, then you know that part of being alive means experiencing difficulties in all their vastness. It’s no secret that this nation is teeming with distressing examples of hardship at the moment.

As a result of Hurricane Harvey, 30,000 people remain in shelters in Houston.

The city of Charlottesville is still in the wake of the deadly Unite the Right rally.

Last week, Public Safety refused to respond to the aid of a Point Park professor who collapsed in the crosswalk at Boulevard of the Allies.

Bystanding comes in all shapes and sizes.

Famous televangelist Joel Osteen refused to open the doors to his Houston-based mega church for displaced residents. President Trump took a two-day pause post-Charlottesville to issue a competent remark on the tragedy.

There are a lot of pieces of life that have the potential to be harrowing or intimidating, and it seems as though there are endless amounts of situations that can produce anxiety. For some, it may be easier to reside in your comfortable state of being – we would argue that it’s not easier to live a life like this.

It’s not about heroism. It’s not about having a cool, properly exposed picture of you at a protest to set as your Facebook cover photo. It’s about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, if just for a moment. It’s especially not about feeling bad for someone – that misses the point entirely. Instead, it’s about realizing our humanness, despite background or beliefs, and finding a place of common ground in the name of compassion.

An impressive outpouring of people are stepping up to stand beside complete strangers who are on the receiving end of dogmatism, bias and adversity in this country. It’s a proactive step in the right direction, and it’s quite beautiful. As members of the student body and student media, we encourage you to search your life for the places you are standing by. We challenge you to identify these areas and fight against them with everything inside you. We need it.