Compassion

I'm probably the most hypocritical person in the world to talk about compassion. When a story about a kid drowning or a puppy getting crushed comes on the news I close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and say "la la laaaa", because I don't want to feel sad and there are a lot of things to feel sad about right now. Back in the 60's and early 70's, there was graphic gore on the TV every night of our children being slaughtered in a strange land and while this would have cured me of the television addiction I have today, I don't understand how someone could live through this without learning a little bit about compassion. Supposedly it hardens or desensitizes the observer. It makes you stronger.

Well I don't want to be stronger. Just like knowing the right foods to eat, the right amount of sleep and exercise and generally the right way to be a good neighbor or family participant, I know compassion is right in a civilized world. I hear people say we can't afford universal health care or free schools or day care for the poor or dental exams. I hear people say we should expect citizens to do more and government to do less because a welfare state is a state with no incentive to live (work). I hear people say by nature we are all greedy, selfish and lazy and we will take advantage of any help to do the minimum possible given the opportunity, but in the same breath they say we are the greatest, hardest working country in the world. I guess that's because we're the strongest and richest so they're not including those lazy welfare people.

We can afford five hundred billion dollars to remove a crazy leader from a marginal country which posed absolutely no threat to our commonwealth, but we can't afford (to try) to give everyone reasonable health care? Do sick people really lose incentive to work because they can go to the doctor for free? Now that chemotherapy is "on the house", everyone is going to go out and get cancer. I can't comprehend how someone without a job (or even just without a good job) can get stuck with enough medical bills where they could work (if capable) for the rest of their life and not make a dent in them. That is ludicrous. There's your disincentive to work.

It comes down to this; "I gave at the office." Nobody thinks they should have to pay taxes because they have no control over how the money is spent and they already give at church or some other charity of choice. Why should they pay for public education when they send their kids to private or charter schools? Why should they pay for prisons when they are good citizens and private organizations are willing to exploit that resource? Why should they pay for universities when they already have degrees or their kids won't benefit from state funded universities?

Why? Because we need a little fucking compassion, that's why! No wonder you think people are born with original sin. It's obviously the core of your Republican being. I don't really believe you all want the whole country to suffer while you trample and stack the oppressed higher and higher just for a better view. More likely, just like me, you are afraid to see the damage, so behind your D&G shades and underneath your noise canceling iPod buds you too are just singing, "la la laaaa."