The way to love someone
is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul
until you find a crack,
and then gently pour your love into that crack.
~Keith Miller

Thursday, December 1, 2016

update -notes on COMPASSION

[update - just this between these brackets 30 Nov. 16 -

- compassion (sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others) doesn't make you, your neighborhood, or your entire Nation, a doormat.  I am reminded of the saying large doors swing on little hinges (something like that).  The information that I have to work with about "refugees" for example, is incomplete.  Providing sanctuary to people fleeing crappy places is not necessarily the most compassionate conclusion.  

On one hand, we have the gum ball guy's talk on immigration (see above) on the other, or another, hand, we have - well, this: 

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said Monday he was saddened by the “senseless act of gun violence” at Ohio State University, even though the attacker used a butcher knife and a car.
Mr. Kaine, who ran on the 2016 Democratic ticket with presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was accused of pushing a gun-control agenda after his Twitter post blaming firearms for the siege.
Kaine is supposed to be a better thinker than comments like that indicate.  He is representing large groups of people and I, perhaps naively, want to believe that our elected voices for "the people" aren't "dumb-dumbs" with talking points (guns bad. sing along with the bouncing ball...).  He is not my Senator/Representative, but he is a position to speak towards our collective governance.
and this:
an immigrant Artan was born in Somalia and moved to Pakistan with his family in 2007. He came to the United States as a legal permanent resident in 2014. Ohio State attacker
This story wasn't about a gun, or gun violence.  The gun part of the story is a man intent on a murderous attack on "regular people" was stopped/killed/shot dead by an officer of the law. It could have been a "regular person" with a gun but it wasn't - I wonder how that would have played out. Let's direct collective angst toward senseless gun violence and away from senseless Muslim immigrant violence.   
It seems that we are encouraged to believe that all Muslims are regular people, immigrating victims who must be treated with compassion.  I mean - soldiers wear uniforms identifying themselves, these guys aren't soldiers ... we wouldn't allow foreign soldiers to walk among us would we?  
I wonder how much we are willing to spend on "compassion" (There should be a well publicized conversation on what it costs to support an immigrant - financial costs are just a matter of fact and public record - societal costs aren't as easily calculated and when a recipient of "compassion" freaks out, the cost to their victim/s is not a matter for calculation ... I wonder, am I safe out walking on the local trail ... that is what terrorism is about, inciting fear with acts of violence to manipulate outcomes.
... what ever that amount is, I would like for it to be spent on American servicemen/women and their families (and cops actually).  If there is compassion money left over after that, I'd like to see it go towards projects that benefit our country.  I think immigrants should be assigned to "people of that particular compassion" who want to help immigrants assimilate in to American norms.  Let those folks host immigrates in their homes as one might a foreign exchange student - let them be accountable to their neighbors for what that community thinks is right. 
I don't want to spend my compassion on soldiers intent on harming this Country.  I don't think that is compassion well spent.]

2 comments:

vanderleun said...

Against Compassion

http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/american_studies/compassion_fatigue.php

DeAnn said...

"... These indulgences of wish would remain harmless and essentially admirable as long as nothing more imperative or noble calls us. That which calls to us is not the world that may be, but the world that is as we make it day by day. ...

...Put simply, we can, at the present time, no longer afford to fund our ever expanding compassionate state. Compassion can never be made compulsory and cash-flow positive at the same time. Whenever and wherever compassion has been made compulsory the people soon find they no longer have care or quartas to spare." ~ GVdL

Thank you for sharing the link Gerard.