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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDisquiet
Back in 1960 my seventh grade literature teacher spent one class period each week reading aloud to us. By the end of the semester we had heard the entirety of Anne Franks diary. In our history classes most of us were just beginning to learn the details of the world events our parents and grandparents still spoke of in whispers. In our classroom discussions, the most common question was Why didnt somebody do something?
Theres no way of counting how many times that question has been asked in the course of human history. Nor could I count how many times its been raised in my own lifetime. Remember Kitty Genovese? Biafra? And so damned many before and between and after after after. Some we answered to good effect. Others we turned away from, closing our eyes but unable to avoid hearing that plaintive cry.
Our common humanity was horrified by the massacre at Sandy Hook. After Aurora. After Columbine. And we were horrified again by the Republicans response to efforts to prevent more of the same. We gasped in disbelief during the Republican debates when the audience cheered Ron Pauls assertion that someone without insurance should be allowed to die an unnecessary death. More recently, New Jersey Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, in a rant against Obamacare, expressed the Tea Party perspective when he said If you get cancer thats too bad, but its not my problem. Once more, we were disgusted.
Many, if not most, of us grew up in some familiarity with the concept of compassion. We could recognize the story of the Good Samaritan, a parable offered in answer to Who is my neighbor?, an extended response to Cains much earlier taunt, Am I my brothers keeper?
Syria. On the other side of the planet, in a part of the world that does not love us. But the children! ...We cant be the worlds policeman... We cut off food stamps for our own poor, how can we be expected to pay to rescue others without creating more hardship?... War is not the answer, but neither is indifference
There is an answer. We just have to be willing to find it.
G_j
(40,372 posts)solutions. Just as MLK Jr. did.
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)People are just very cold .Its never been like this before.