Let’s tear the Band-Aid off: a little girl got trapped in a filthy drain for seven hours while the whole country cheered as uniformed heroes pulled her from the pit. Cue the headlines, the viral videos, and—predictably—the social media applause. Firefighters stoically risk their backs, parents weep, and newscasters wipe away real or crocodile tears.

But let’s swallow the bitter truth: that drain is a monument to what we’re willing to ignore. It was there because we allow our towns and cities to rot, because infrastructure is nobody’s Instagram cause and politicians know we’ll forget by next week. For seven hours, one girl’s terror became a feel-good moment. Are you proud? Is that enough—wringing catharsis from a crisis we created and refuse to prevent?

Everyone wants a hero, but no one wants responsibility. We love the spectacle of salvation, the simple narrative of rescue. Meanwhile, millions of children walk past open sewers, broken sidewalks, and rusty playgrounds every day. We don’t notice. When’s the last time you demanded your city fix a hazard before it became headline fodder? We’ve traded civic vigilance for clickbait virtue, trusting in taxpayer-funded heroes instead of demanding the minimum: that girls shouldn’t be swallowed by drains in the richest country the world has ever known.

We flood Facebook with heart emojis and hashtags: #ThankYouFirefighters. Should we also hashtag #WeLetThisHappen? Let’s be honest: the system is designed for moments like this—disaster, spectacle, applause, amnesia. If a society can afford Super Bowls but not sealed storm drains, what does that say about our collective soul? Was she lucky she was rescued, or unlucky she fell in at all?

So here’s your challenge, your ugly mirror: will you keep worshipping the heroics manufactured by a broken system, or will you demand a world where the drain is fixed before any girl disappears? Next time you see that viral rescue—ask whose comfort you’re buying and at what cost.

This article was inspired by the headline: 'Watch: Firefighters rescue girl trapped in drain for seven hours'.