Empathy, a wonderful leveling of the field when we actually feel the pain of another being and thus act with some care or compassion towards them, setting aside our personal interest in favor of helping another person. Yes, in their best interest, or at least with kindness and care towards them. It doesn’t have to be a big gesture, doesn’t have to take you out of your head, your comfort zone; just has to be something small, something simple, a touch or a cup of coffee on a cold morning. How many of us think we can make a difference in the life of another? How many of us try?
I am more than certain there are those of us, that is members of humanity, who are not completely selfish and self-serving. The problem is, for the life of me I can’t find them in great abundance. My breath is knocked out of me right now, on every single level of my being, I look around and I think this nation has sunk to a new level of assholery and we are without a single overarching redeeming quality. Our failures, as a nation and a people pile higher than Mt. Everest, our disregard for our impact on the world a phenomenon I continue to be stunned to my soul by.
With each revelation of just how badly entire bodies of government are behaving, Ferguson or the 47, I am moved further toward a belief we are a nation in its final death throes. We are choking on our hate, on our fear and on the absolute ugliness brought out of the closet by the election of Barack Obama. Let’s not pretend otherwise, let’s not insult each other’s intelligence. The election of
this president, not once but twice threw a wrench in everything, brought all the animus boiling up to the surface and caused usually reasonable people to show their true colors; they couldn’t help themselves. Compassion and empathy flew out the window in favor of hate and destruction at any cost.
Since 1976 one side of the house has had it in its mind they would control the economy and thus the nation at all costs, they have run a game on us all. The very wealthy have controlled the direction of our nation through control of one party with little concern for a vast majority of its citizens. With the dogma of smaller government translated into cuts to services and paid for by constant cuts in taxes for those at the top of the earnings bracket our nation has become cruel, sadistic even. Until recently, until the election of this president these changes were small, incremental and went nearly unnoticed. Now though, now they are out there for all to see, no longer incremental but instead entire programs focused on those who can least afford to lose even ten dollars a month, let alone a hundred or more. Worse still, that same party has become adverse to science, adverse to facts and given to fear mongering, leading us into wars throughout the world.
Empathy and compassion cannot even be found from the pulpits of our churches, today. Instead, many of those who lay claim to the mantle of Christianity, instead preach against those in the most need, preach against compassion, preach against this president, preach against all that Jesus stood for. Many in the government who run on a platform of Christian morals, family values they also fail to evaluate what this means, fail at compassion, fail at empathy and of course fail at the greatest lesson of all, this is a nation of diverse people, diverse beliefs and a Constitution that guarantees us the right to live our lives without interference of Church in our homes, bedrooms or state run institutions.
We are destroying our greatest asset, our people; by making education out of reach for all but the wealthiest, we are undermining our future. By cutting funding to public education at every level, we are destroying our future for generations. By shipping our manufacturing off-shore and bringing in from elsewhere those who have the education to fill our white collar jobs, whether it is high-tech, science or medicine we have cut huge swaths across the American opportunity prospective, now and in the future. Soon we will not have a problem with immigration from Mexico or elsewhere to fill the jobs ‘no one else wants’, these will be the only jobs Americans are qualified for. Soon, we will be a nation of serfs in our own country; unqualified for anything but picking fruit and vegetables, cleaning toilets and begging for scrapes.
As a nation, we are without mercy, without compassion for our own. We have no sense of justice, no sense of right and wrong. It fascinates me, always; how we can point to Iran, call them a terrible Theocracy, or ISIS, and call them Terrorists when we have no space in either our distant or current history from which to hide. We who marched into sovereign nations and murdered, tortured with complete disregard for their right to self-governance. We who within our own borders have entirely ignored the rule of law, treating our own citizens to injustice, torture and even murder to enrich a criminal justice for profit system that has broken families and communities. No, we have no right to cry foul at injustice abroad when we only gloss over the offenses in our own backyard.
One where the police are free to murder twelve-year-olds in parks and blame them for their deaths, is this the nation we want? One where schools are crumbling and children cannot learn and the likelihood is if you are poor you will not graduate from high school, is this the nation we want? One where if you are a Black Man you have a one in three chance and a Latino Man a one in six chance of being imprisoned during your lifetime, compared to a White Man who has only a one in 17 chance; this says nothing about the crimes committed only how sentencing is handed down, how justice is served. Is this the nation we want?
We as a nation are in descent. Falling rapidly into a fiery pit from which there is no way out unless someone steps in, someone with enough will to offend and enough backbone to stand up to all the old white men and women who have stayed on their happy asses in Washington and elsewhere in seats of power for far too long. Someone needs to start calling this out; someone needs to start saying no more, enough is enough. All of us need to start asking ourselves, is this truly the nation we want to pass on to our children?
I can honestly say it is not the nation I want, this nation disturbs me frightens me even.
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
I have been putting a lot of thought into many of the issues you have presented. Some people who follow my blogs know that I am an older registered republican living In Florida. Most republicans would describe me as being a RINO. If President Ronald Reagan were running for office today, they would say the same about him.
I started blogging on the Trayvon Martin case because I could not fathom how the right were so strongly supportive of George Zimmerman who I considered to be the real thug.
I am thinking that if you can’t beat them, copy them. I am talking about the tea party. extreme right that seems to be holding our country and government hostage. These folks go out in droves and vote. They form lobby type organizations such as the Americans for Prosperity. If they are asked to protest, they are set up to act on a dime. They will call, email, tweet, write legislators, press and anyone else by the thousands when directed. They find folks to run for office and support them in droves. They act like lemmings and spout the same talking points over and over again.
There needs to be “non tea party” group set up to copy these tactics with a set of goals etc.
Sometime soon, I will doing a blog on some of my ideas. Anyone else out their have any thoughts as to how to push our country in a better direction.
Take a look at the Coffee Party, they are trying but people are afraid to move their allegiance.
I am literally talking about copying tea part tactics. Notice that their allegiance is to the republican party. There are those folks like the Koch brothers who have spent millions to set up these tea party groups with their think tanks, tactics and strategies. They set up ALEC to write a lot of the template laws such as “stand your ground” gun legislation, and the requirement of voter ID laws designed to restrict minority voters from access to the ballot box,
Why reinvent the wheel? Creating a 3rd party would end up doing what Ralph Nader did in Florida which cost democratic votes and lost the election for Al Gore. I would prefer that a non tea party group would align themselves with democrats.
Personally? I would prefer the Democrats get up off their butts and start acting in the interest of the nation. But that is simply me.
Ditto, but they do not have the same echo chamber to counter the far right’s maneuvers. I forgot to mention that ALEC came up with the republican gerrymandering schemes.
For business news, I like to follow Forbes and Bloomberg. This is part of what Bloomberg writes on 3/12/15 about this issue:
Here’s another problem for Democrats: By losing so badly in 2010, they lost the chance to draw, or even help to draw, the district maps in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Utah—most of the country, actually.
The resulting gerrymandering did more than squeeze out Democrats. It cut into the numbers of seats Democrats can compete in. In states where the Democratic vote relies on non-whites and urbanites, they were packed into a minimal number of safe seats. This didn’t just hurt the Democrats. If the dream is fulfilled, it will prevent the Democrats from building a moderate farm team, because there is nowhere to farm.
The Republicans didn’t just destroy the Democrats for a couple of cycles. They drew districts where Republicans can train their future statewide candidates, and Democrats are left electing liberals.
The above tactic is in part why the republicans did so well in the 2014 elections. The good news is that the 2016 national election map favors the democrats; whereas in 2014 the map favored the republicans.
Which doesn’t mean anything at all except for this moment in time they have an advantage.
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Agree: “I can honestly say it is not the nation I want, this nation disturbs me frightens me even.” ….. Sad!!
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
There is a lot of truth in this post. thanks for shedding light on a topic in such a tasteful way. Today. I specifically took some time to pray for you. Know that you are in my heart, and I know great things will come to you.
A big hug,
R
My friend I am glad you think my rants are tasteful, I try (sigh). You should see where they start.
I am grateful you include me, truly. Perhaps that was the grace I felt. Believe me, a bit of peace and grace right now, they are needful things.
Peace back
V
I can’t help but agree that Obama’s election has brought out the worst in people, those carefully guarded tendencies toward hate and trust. I’ve seen it among many of my so-called “friends,” even. Shame on them. But I do feel as a society we are slowly but surely moving in the right direction. Just the very fact that Obama was elected, and then reelected, is proof of that.
Yet with his election the other side is working hard to make certain it never happens again. With his election, the terrible is getting more so. This is what worries me.
As of this morning, Hillary Clinton has a 15-pt. lead in a head-to-head matchup against any Republican challenger. The other side is going to really flip out when she reaches the Oval Office!
As a kid, I wondered how the world went from Rome to the dark ages. I’m starting to understand just exactly how.
Me also Elyse. This is our third shot at Rome revisited I am thinking, bring out the lions.
The news is scary to watch; if I didn’t know better I’d have thought it was another plotline in a book. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s real. Too real.
We are all going to end up in the poor house. Even my country does not serve us well anymore. Carbon copies have appeared here of everything you speak about.
I have seen that, it is a shame. I wonder what is happening, don’t you?
I do wonder. I do.
I don’t think you are alone in this either Valentine. There is an erosion in value systems across the board.
I know, I do watch the world and weep. I think there is something so fundamentally wrong right now I hurt for all of us. But all I can really rage against is here, this nation. So that is what I do, rage against this nation and our fundamental failure to live up to the ideals we set.
Val, a gripping, honest piece. But how do we even begin to take back our country? How do we stop this and create something better, real, welcoming and compassionate where we can live harmoniously instead of at each other’s throat. Too much evil of late. I get so frustrated by it all but am thankful that you can put into words what many of us are feeling. And yes, it’s embarrassing and sickening the way “They” treat the president, with such contempt and disrespect. I hope they never win the White House again!
There is no hope Monica if we don’t vote.
That is why They get away with what they do. That is what They get away with murder.
Yes, I also fear that the U.S. appears to be at the door of its own death. However, I guess the fact we’re now openly discussing such things as taxation disparities between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of us is a good thing. It’s no longer hidden. We now know the puppetry that was the Bush, Jr., presidency resulted in this nation’s near-total economic collapse. Most of us are not only aware of it, but we also believe it to be the unmitigated truth and are willing to try to change it. Pancho Villa, who helped to launch México’s 1910 revolution against that country’s industrial and political elite, said, “It’s better to die on our feet than live on our knees.” Many Americans are now getting up off their knees.
Yes Alejandro, some of us we are talking about it. The problem though there remains enough citizens who still believe if only ‘that guy over there, the one with the darker skin, yeah as long as he is doing worse than I am doing better’. It is sad and horrifying. We still are not all in this together, Americans.
Boy, you have hit the nail(s) on the head(s), Valentine. The only thing I can add is taken from a report I saw on TV today. That is, the 1% of the population that has 99% of the wealth, may, in the future, decide to build or buy themselves an island or build a boat big enough to hold them all and so they can travel the world at leisure and not pay taxes at all!
They pay taxes?
Val,
I DESPISE the word tolerance. Why would we tolerate? Why can’t we just “LOVE?”
When can we just love one another NO MATTER our differences?
xxx Kiss from MN.
I also don’t love the word tolerance my friend, however right now I would be happy with just a bit of it, just a bit. It would be a good start.
XXX
I think that when all this hate and ignorance being out there, we can know it’s a problem and do something about it. Because if it stays in the closet, it’s still a problem, but it’s just easier to ignore.
So now we can’t ignore it exists, but now we run away. Now we bow our heads and say there is nothing we can do because they have more money. I simply call bullshit.
It’s definitely troubling, Valentine. It seems civility, empathy, and tolerance haven’t come nearly as far as we’d hoped. But I like to remain positive that change is possible. For example, when I think of how far gay marriage has come from just a few years ago, I like to think progress is still on the table. (Even though I know we have a long, long way to go.)
Yes, small steps forward it is true. But then I see police walking away from murder. I see 47 Senators signing a letter to a foreign land, in essence promoting war and ignoring this president and his authority. I see injustice, heaped on injustice and we do nothing. I see those who were sent to fight homeless in the street while those who sent them grow wealthy on their backs.
The list goes on and I wonder, is there truly progress?
As an empath, I absolutely agree with you – on all points. I hate the direction our nation is headed. It terrifies me.
Me too Jan, it absolutely terrifies me.
I don’t think we are alone in that.