Thursday, May 10, 2012

Compassion



My blog friend Sparrowchat wrote of compassion yesterday. Or rather the lack of it in the USA as evidenced by Demz Wot Rulez. The "bootstraps" philosophy adopted by the privileged. As in:

If you're poor you must be at fault, you lazy arse good for nothing. Pull up those bootstraps! And if you did there would be a pizza empire and ten cars for everyone!

Well you know I don't see a lack of bootstraps in anyone I know who find themselves poor, out of work and sick. And at least, for now, in Canada, we don't have to worry about funding the sick part.

I know a man who drives the school bus here and he was felled by a stroke on Tuesday. Still in hospital. A fund raiser has been organized to support his wife and kids while they await his Employment Insurance payments. Compassion.

My cleaning lady has a recently injured back but as her husband is unable to work (just about lost his hand and his brains in a terrible accident last year)she is back at it, telling me her hydro is going to be cut off and could I pay for a few cleaning sessions in advance to bail her out of the hole? Compassion.

Another friend who is cash impacted because of the theatre trip to Ireland and needing spending money and a few extras has set about gaining this extra funding through painting jobs for friends and family. She is 67 years old. Bootstraps.

Lacking education and a professional career through no fault of their own, people make do as best they can. But the basic safety net has to be provided. A true measure of a civilized and caring society is how we take care of the neediest. For the majority are not lazy and indifferent.

But the ones who are, we know where they live, right?

15 comments:

  1. right!
    I value compassion and kindness and i'm dismayed by some of the i got mine, to hell with you attitudes out there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indeed, the true measure of a civilised society is how it treates the neediest. Which in Britain right now is pretty shabbily. But then this government defines the neediest as the ones with three yachts to maintain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Considering the USA loves to tout its Christian credentials, and considering that some of Christianity's strongest tenets are The Golden Rule, and the parable of the Good Samaritan...
    what happened?

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
    $$$$$$$$$$$$$ happened.

    So to cover their tracks They invented the bootstrap idea and brainwashed the Great Unwashed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Matthew 25:40. Compassion. Thank you for this post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So many are poor because they are unable to show compassion for others.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It seems the tide will be turning very soon. We've jusr about had enough of this kind of attirude. Sicialism is making a return. xox

    ReplyDelete
  7. Don't start me off on compassion and the lack of it. I live in the midst of both types and it takes a great deal of restraint not to strangle a couple of the latter types.

    The kind of examples that you give are so common that national differences do not matter. People everywhere are the same at the most fundamental levels and I have just heard from a relative about what she intends doing about her aged aunt twice removed who has been living alone for some time now. My heart went out to my SIL and her other relatives who are all pitching in to see that the old lady is taken good care of.

    On the other hand, today was also a day when I got a young lad a job that his mother wanted me to get for him. He is all of 21 and loafs around while his parents work their butts off to support him. He went to work and after two hours left the work place without so much of an explanation as to why he was leaving. That is also part of our reality. There are people at the bottom of the pyramid who refuse to take responsibility for themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  8. CC:
    Mainly in the ones who can afford to help, too.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nick:
    Yes the topsy turvy state of current society which benefits only the uber wealthy.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  10. T:
    Yes, bought and paid for by the megacorporatocracy. Throw the poor and disadvantaged under the nearest bus unless they want to chauffeur the cars. And even then they have to be "legal" citizens.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  11. GM:
    Locked in their ivory towers, yes.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  12. Irene:
    Yes watching France with bated breath, here.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ramana:
    And I do wonder about the young man you cite. What creates his MO?
    Over-indulgent parents who refuse to say no?
    A distorted view of the world and its workings?
    It's hard to say.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  14. I would say that a combination of both which feed off each other and an environment that enables that phenomenon. I despair for his parents who will one day rue having given birth to him.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Anonymous comments will be deleted unread.

Email me at wisewebwomanatgmaildotcom if you're having trouble.