So What If There Are Unkind or Greedy People

A lot of people are afraid of heights, not me, I'm afraid of widths.                                                   Stephen Wright 

Unto whomsoever much is given, of them shall much be required.                                              Luke 12:48

Right now I'm reading Timothy Eagan's book  The Immortal Irishman which deals in part with the sad unnecessary potato famine. It is well known that the failure of the potato crop by a blight caused a famine which killed millions of Irish citizens. What is less well known was at that time in this gruesome history the nasty British government did next to nothing to help the starving Irish people. Indeed the British politicians in particular were treating the entire island of Ireland as their slaves and as if they were subhuman. Worse they wanted all of the starving people to pay for the food that was being grown by them for the wealthy British who "owned" the land. In essence the Irish were serfs. 


Throughout history there has been devastating examples of "man's inhumanity to man": the holocaust, the African genocides, the Bosnian war that wiped out 100,000 Muslims, the British purposefully ignoring the starving Irish during the potato famine that cost the Irish millions of lives, forced marriages of children, the sexual slaves, the corruption in the fishing industry in Thailand, enslaving men for profits, corporations using children to work in factories in foreign lands...I could go on and on. [You probably have your own list.]

As we look on this today with horror I realize much of these absurd attitudes toward humanity are still going on in parts of our globe. This is cruelty and should be called out and fought against by all caring individuals. Where is the PETA for the down trodden despairing humans?

One answer could be from some of the noble people of the past. A couple of years ago I wrote about How the Irish [monks] Saved Civilization after reading Thomas Cahill's marvelous book. To sum up: the wee monks laboriously copied all of the books they could gather knowing the barbarian hordes were threatening to destroy every last one. These hordes came from the parts of Europe that were illiterate, Germany, Sweden, etc. So the barbarians burned all of the books they could get their hand on. Since they couldn't read they were threatened by the people who could. I am getting to a point: Barbarians didn't want the people they were conquering to be more educated and intelligent than they were. 

Hence thank God for the monks who risked their lives for education.  In a sad similarity today, ISIS, the Boko Haram, the Taliban are busily doing the exact same thing. As Malala said, "the scariest thing to the Taliban is a woman with a book." To bullies and thugs, it's too dangerous to have an educated population and most abhorrent, an educated female population.

I might add that this is the hallmark of insanity--- to be fearful and destroy something or someone you don't understand or can't empathize with. To understand an issue or a person you need to research, examine and learn. This requires effort and today my grave concern is people are unwilling to do the work required to stay educated. Sadly they accept what's on the Internet or what the TV tells them without forethought or examination. One of the unfortunate costs of our internet is the obliteration of journalists and newspapers regularly laying off and losing these qualified people. This was brought home so well in the excellent movie "Spotlight". In the movie you followed an team of reporters who researched the reported cases of child abuse by priests in the Boston area. It was gripping. Ultimately another sad note I came away with after watching this movie is how far down our society has fallen in that we no longer have these teams of journalists to count on. The truth suffers a daily fate to the ones who claim to have credentials and have none. It didn't help that the media has been repeatedly sneared at as being "liberally" biased. 

Knowing that journalism has suffered I believe it is important to be a bit skeptical of some of the more absurd "facts" that are dished out so casually on the Internet. One of the example is the climate change deniers.  Fully 99% of the world's scientist know that not only is this happening but it's becoming a crisis. Yet there are a teeny percentage of scientists [and many ignorant politicians] that deny that the world's climate is changing. Interestingly these few scientists and the politicians are accepting money from the chemical industries. Duh. 

President Obama gave an excellent example about accepting facts and the truth when he said, "suppose you have diabetes and you went to 99 doctors and they said, 'yes, you have a life threatening condition and you must follow a careful diet eliminating fried foods and sugar'. Would you really believe the one doctor who said, "don't pay any attention to that you can eat anything you want and continue on with your slovenly ways." Then after that conversation from this doctor you find out he is being paid a stipend from the fast food industry....Hmmm, would you really risk your life on that one doctor's advice? 

When it comes to paying he is the first to put his hand in his pocket. And leave it there.                                  Anonymous

Another thing I find fascinating is the recent release of the information that $11 billion has been stuffed away in Panama by tax cheaters. Did I mention that it was $11 Billion, and supposedly that is an underestimate. Knowing that many in government claim there is no money to prop up our infrastructure, feed the poor, fund the schools, support government agencies that help the wounded Vets, I find it down right hypocritical and cowardly that they do not demanded right now that these taxes get paid. Pronto. Yet who do these tax cheaters routinely want to call cheaters? Single Moms on welfare. 

What is really ironic is that there seems to be a war on women and particularly the poor women. That is really amusing in a twisted sense. Amusing because there this portion of our population, many who say they are devoutly religious, who have decided that generosity and kindness to the less fortunate is not a worthy value. They blame the poor for their circumstances. Worse the focus is turned to the few welfare cheaters which seems egregious when you contrast that with the ones who contributed to the $11 billion tax cheating. Yet who do these tax cheaters routinely want to point a finger at as cheaters? Single Moms on welfare. Go figure. 

We could easily feed every child, the homeless, the old and infirm in this country. Many people who right now live with "food insecurity" do not have to do so. We are the wealthiest nation in the world and yet we have people who go hungry. There are those who turn away from suffering and blame the poor and the unfortunate for the state they are in [the "makers and the takers" in Paul Ryan's vernacular]. How can this seeming contradiction exist? Is it purely ignorance and lack of education? 

They asked Jack Benny if he would do something for  the Actor's Orphanage---so he shot both his parents and moved in.                                                                  Bob Hope

No. Sadly this is based on lack of empathy and an unwillingness to investigate how to better these people's desperate situations. Who, I ask you, is the king of lack of empathy? I won't name names but that's because I'm stumped that anyone with half a brain would fall for a man who is verbally abusive, sexist, racist, had four bankruptcies and three wives who are aliens. Oh and orange hair.

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