When people around you make a bad decision or even a series of bad decisions, what's your first instinct?

If you chose to stand around without saying anything, you will probably seem just as guilty as they do. It's why "guilty by association" is often cause for arrest and why others, despite who you might be personally, judge you based on who you are friends with.

You might think that you would choose to intervene, and I applaud you for that. Considering that we are taught from a young age to intervene, it would make sense that most people would think they would choose to do so.

It's why we teach children that if they see someone being bullied that they should go from being a bystander to an active force of good to end the situation. However, when this translates to real life circumstances, no one seems to want to become that active force of good.

If you were forced to choose between keeping your manager position at Nike, despite knowing it uses sweatshops in poor countries or quitting, what would you choose? If you worked for MAC Cosmetics, would you still continue to work there knowing all of their products are tested on animals and then they kill them once their "job" was done?

That's where it gets tricky.

People often choose to look the other way when the situation benefits or could benefit, themselves. They might even decide that it's not their place to say something for fear of being the odd one out. But if it's not your place and no one else is saying something, whose place is it?

This is why I am leaving Odyssey.

Despite how much I love the people in the Rowan Community, I am choosing to become an active force of good. I am no longer content writing for this company when it promotes hateful and harmful articles written by creators who choose to be bystanders. I love being able to have my own voice, surrounded by hundreds of people who are given a voice, too, but it came to a point where some of those people used their voice to be controversial in hopes of getting paid, despite what they personally believe.

I would rather be voiceless, but happy with who I am than aligning myself with a company and creators who use their voice to be hateful in hopes of compensation.

I am so grateful for my opportunities here, but I can no longer sit here and write knowing others do the same for the wrong reasons.