Would I Walk Away From Omelas?

It seems that there are many undesirable events and circumstances that happen in today's world that the majority of people are ignorant to. I will be honest in the fact that for most of the time, I fall into that line of people. Under the occasion that someone wishes to educate me on their views of poverty, unsafe and unfair working conditions and child labour laws, I do not refute their opinions. I will listen, and absorb the information as to better understand the full extent of what I am supporting when I shop at Walmart, for example. It pains me to know that there are terrible times for people in the world still today, but am I trying to help? When the opportunity is in front of me, perhaps. Do I change my habits in order to make better moral choices? I might once in a while, when I think about it.
I do not deem myself an entirely ignorant person, just busy. Sometimes I am left with no alternative than to buy an imported good or to shop somewhere that has items made by children. I do not make the best choices, but every once in a while, I stop and think about what I am doing, what I am supporting, and why I am doing it.
I believe that the people of Omelas ponder the same questions when they are deciding whether or not to walk away from their city. In many ways, their upbringings are similar to most of ours. As children, just like the children of Omelas, we do not know all of the cruelness and tragedies of the world we live in; but as we grow older, we begin to understand just how far we have, or have not, developed as a society or as a community.
The boy, (we'll say it's a boy), kept in the small room in the city of Omelas can represent many things: the news, child labour, dictation, third world countries and more. The boy, to me, basically represents many things in different cultures that are not necessarily accepted, maybe sometimes challenged, undiscovered, misunderstood or unfair things that just are; things that never had to be, and don't have to be, but are still present, and relevant issues.
I have been trying to decide whether or not I would stay in Omelas, and trying to decide if I could stand to know that a young boy was being tortured while I lived in my own free world. There would be no alternative, and few challengers to the reason of his poor existence. Some people would want to help, but no matter what, he was still there, living in that room, alone and helpless. At this thought, I would dearly want to say that I would be one of the few who would walk away, in a silent protest to the barbaric ways of the world I lived in. I want to say that I would stand up and make a change for the better, and help myself by relieving my conscience at the thought of doing something different, something right and makes a little bit more sense than what I had previously done. Unfortunately, I cannot say exactly what I would do in Omelas. For me, it falls under the category of  "you have to be there to understand". Get it? No, I have not protested against the cruelty to animals or fought for different child labour laws. I feel that I want to, I really do. But another half of me thinks that if I was there to see the whole process first hand, things would be different, my actions would be different. I do not often look into where my clothes or food comes from, and that is my fault and it is on my conscience. But I feel that I am not directly involved in the cruelty and injustice that goes on where those products come from and do not feel directly responsible. And for these reasons, I am partly under fault. I am no better than the people of Omelas who stay in the city. I am grown and know of some of the terrible things that the world has to offer, but I am not one of the people who go to visit the boy, to see for themselves what is really happening in their world.
Half of me is undecided. Half of me is quite certain I would stay. I would stay with my family, and follow the upbringing of so many before me. I could not leave alone, independently. It would perhaps be the better decision to leave, but by staying, I would still have the comfort of the familiar. I suppose by staying you could say that I am putting my loved ones and familiarity and my comfor before what is truly right in my society. It sounds awful, and possibly if I really did live in Omelas, I would say differently. But for now I will say that I would stay, turn to ignorance and neglect and live the life I knew how to. Perhaps that would change as the years wore on. Who is to say in the future that I won't become a great activist and stand up for what I believe is right. What I say now could change, or stay the same, who knows? Regrettably, if I view the parallels from the story and apply them to my life, I can see that I am contently sitting at the festival in Omelas, wondering what tomorrows day at school will bring, and little more.