Should We Mind Our Business When Bad Stuff Happens to People?



Ray Rice's wife wants us to mind our own business.  Does she have a point?

By Henry Adeleye on September 15, 2014



image_blog

After the infamous video of Ray Rice completely taking out his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, surfaced, the world was set ablaze with their opinions on the matter.  The consensus that followed was pretty much as expected:  Rice should be penalized harshly for knocking a woman unconscious.  Surprisingly - or maybe unsurprisingly - details have emerged that show the NFL had already known about the video when they gave Rice his initial two-game suspension, which leads us to the conclusion that public outrage is what fueled Rice's recent indefinite suspension.  One of the most powerful things this situation has shown is that public perception is ridiculously powerful.  The NFL couldn't stand to take the PR nightmare that keeping Rice would have caused because people let their opinions known on the matter. 


Interestingly, however, Rice's wife doesn't share this same sentiment.  She has gone on record to let the world know that the outrage is unwelcome.  "THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don't you all get," she wrote in an Instagram post.  "If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you've succeeded on so many levels."  Who's right in this situation?  If people want to be in domestically violent relationships, should we get to tell them that they have to leave?  If an overly powerful and athletic beast of an athlete named Adrian Peterson chooses to discipline his child with a tree trunk he pulled from the ground with his bare hands, is it any of our business?  Where do we draw the line between trying to genuinely help someone in need and invading his or her privacy?  Let me know what you think below.