pent up anger

I decided that I was too tired to walk all the way to the subway this morning and caught the Sherbourne bus down to King Street. The bus usually loads up at Sherbourne and Bloor; this morning was no exception. Everyone piles in and a woman with a small child - maybe about 2 years old takes a seat near to me. I think nothing of it. She looks to be in her mid thirties; Somalian by her garb.

A few seconds later a man gets on - mid-late thirties, glasses, white patterned shirt over jeans (I think). He walks by her and says, "What? You're too good to wait in line like the rest of us?" He continues to the back of the bus and then says, "Maybe when he's in jail like the rest of them, you'll remember what you taught him."

The woman looks shocked; then she says, "You know fuck you" in an accented voice.

Now I'm almost always a stickler for following the process, don't butt in line and all that. But then I start to wonder:

I wonder what right this man has to cast such a horrible fate on an innocent child.

I wonder if there's any compassion left for our fellow human being when I see a a mother with a small child subjected to this verbal abuse.

I wonder if this would happen if the woman was white.

I wonder what it means that I did nothing about it.