Selective Empathy

[elleng]

by Linda Greenhouse

In overturning a death sentence this week of a Korean War veteran whose lawyer failed to inform the jury about the man’s combat-related traumatic stress disorder, the Supreme Court drew cheers from veterans’ groups and death-penalty opponents. But it also raised a question:

Is selective empathy better than no empathy at all?


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/selective-empathy/?hp

[imdjh]

1. IF we didn't have the DP then guys like this couldn't waste the taxpayers' money and court's time

[patrice]

2. IF it really is empathy, you could hope that selective or not, it IS a start, but it might not

be emphathy. I know military types who lay claim to special status as members of somekind of holy Warrior culture, not warriors for ______________, not warriors for something, but, given the insane absurdity of war, warriors for the glory of warriors alone. People like this seem the opposite of empathetic to me.

[imdjh]

3. No. Selective empathy is not better than no empathy. It's unjust. Everyone has a story.

Being a veteran, or an abused child, or what have you is not a reason to commit murder. It's not a reason to be punished less severely. There are too many people out there who have had horrible fucked up parts of their lives and gone on to live without killing someone else.

Tell it to this woman:



As a young adult, Phúc was removed from her university and used as an anti-war symbol by the communist government of Vietnam. In 1986, however, she was granted permission to continue her studies in Cuba. She had converted from her family's Cao Dai religion to Christianity four years earlier.<10> Phạm Văn Đồng, the then-Prime Minister of Vietnam, became her friend and patron. After arriving in Cuba she met Bui Huy Toan, another Vietnamese student and future fiancé. In 1992, Phúc and Toan married and went on their honeymoon. During a refuelling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, they left the plane and asked for political asylum in Canada. It was granted. They now live in Ajax, Ontario, and have two children. In 1996, Phúc met the surgeons who had saved her life. The following year, she passed the Canadian Citizenship Test with a perfect score, and became a Canadian citizen.<11> On June 30, 2008, National Public Radio broadcast her spoken essay, "The Long Road to Forgiveness", for the "This I Believe" series.<10>