Compassion

I was reading this post on Mike Cope's blog. It kind of hit a chord that's been vibrating for a while in my mind.

I am constantly amazed at people -- in both good ways and bad. Compassion is simply the act of remembering the humanity present in your fellow (wo)man. It doesn't excuse or exculpate anyone, it just acknowledges the shred of dignity that each person carries simply because s/he is human. It's the ignoring of or demeaning of that dignity that leads to wars, abuses, and all manner of evil. War is only possible when you work from within a framework of "us" vs. "them." People applaud at the executions of criminals and the slaughter of enemies because they've managed to dehumanize and objectify them in their own minds. They are "the enemy" or "the Other."

This has, in part, to do with the happenings in the middle East, yes. I am bothered deeply by what happened on both sides and I hope the responsible parties will be punished. But Nick Berg died because he became a symbol of American oppression. The Iraqi prisoners were humiliated and tortured because they became symbols of Iraq and of terrorism and of things that tick us off. The Jews were slaughtered by the millions because they were no longer seen as people.

But what concerns me isn't just that we remove the humanity from others. I'm also concerned that in doing so, we remove it from ourselves.

I'm sorry that it offends people that to me there is no difference which "side" a person is on when s/he is killed, maimed, tortured, abused or otherwise mistreated and that I'm outraged by all of it. I'm sorry I can't be "more mad" over the things that happen to "our people" than the things that happen to "them." I don't see people like that.

It may have something to do with the people I encountered as I was growing up. It may not be directly related, but this is the tie-in with Mike Cope's post. My aunt Genave is severely mentally retarded. She suffered quite a bit of brain damage as a child and also has cerebral palsy. She's in her 40's now and has the mind of a 3 - 4 year old and linguistic skills below that. But no matter how different she seemed to me, no matter how odd it was the first time I encountered her when I was 4, my family has always treated her wonderfully. I didn't realize until much later, in my teenage years, that not all people are like this. The number of times we'd go out in public and people would be embarrassed to look at us directly or would be blatantly rude appalled me. Some people could not see beyond her physical and mental complications to the person she is. And in my opinion, albeit probably biased, they've missed out.

I know that there are people out there who do horrible things. I'm not naive. I also don't protest the death penalty or many of the other punitive actions taken by the US government. I can think there are awful people in the world, that there are stupid people in the world and I can have an occasional vent about it all, but I cannot forget that whatever their flaws, enormous or trivial, they are still people.