Disquiet
Back in 1960 my seventh grade literature teacher spent one class period each week reading aloud to us. By the end of the semester we had heard the entirety of Anne Frank’s diary. In our history classes most of us were just beginning to learn the details of the world events our parents and grandparents still spoke of in whispers. In our classroom discussions, the most common question was “Why didn’t somebody do something?”
There’s no way of counting how many times that question has been asked in the course of human history. Nor could I count how many times it’s been raised in my own lifetime. Remember Kitty Genovese? Biafra? And so damned many before and between and after after after. Some we answered to good effect. Others we turned away from, closing our eyes but unable to avoid hearing that plaintive cry.
Our common humanity was horrified by the massacre at Sandy Hook. After Aurora. After Columbine. And we were horrified again by the Republicans’ response to efforts to prevent more of the same. We gasped in disbelief during the Republican debates when the audience cheered Ron Paul’s assertion that someone without insurance should be allowed to die an unnecessary death. More recently, New Jersey Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, in a rant against Obamacare, expressed the Tea Party perspective when he said “If you get cancer that’s too bad, but it’s not my problem.” Once more, we were disgusted.
Many, if not most, of us grew up in some familiarity with the concept of compassion. We could recognize the story of the Good Samaritan, a parable offered in answer to “Who is my neighbor?”, an extended response to Cain’s much earlier taunt, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Syria. On the other side of the planet, in a part of the world that does not love us. But the children! ...We can’t be the world’s policeman... We cut off food stamps for our own poor, how can we be expected to pay to rescue others without creating more hardship?... War is not the answer, but neither is indifference…
There is an answer. We just have to be willing to find it.
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