The Cure is Compassion
POSTED BY: deadlockvictim
UPDATED: Sunday, May 27, 2007 22:39
VIEWED: 4923
PAGE 3 of 4
You did more than well at every step.
However, I also know of families who were beaten even more if the husband/father thought that someone had found out, and no one's mind was changed. On an individual level I generally don't personally intervene unless I know I'll be around for what happens next and next and next. But I have called police on a few occasions.
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I re-read the original post which specifically suggested there seems to be very little compassion for the people of Iraq - before, during and after the US intervention/invasion/visitation whatever you want to call it depending on your point of view. The point was the lack of compassion. I find it interesting that the conversation has shifted in rather diverse paths. Are were debating whether or not compassion is a good thing in and of itself or the various forms it can take?
Siri
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I was debating that sometimes when good men do compassionate action, there are good outcomes. Sometimes when good men do nothing, everything stays the same.
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In a general sense I have my own ideas of what is good and bad. But in the particular the good one may try to do can end up badly - even worse than doing nothing at all. And I have seen people really, really try to bring someone's life around - taking on personal risk, financial loss, and using up lots of their lives - all to no avail.
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Hey Mazaen,
I think the crucial difference between your heroic personal story and my hypothetical scenario is that you are the daughter in the first instance, and you are intervening in a situation which matches your own personal triumph very closely in the second. You were not simply a "good woman" but a thoroughly "knowledgible woman."
It reminds me of a story told about Mahatma Gandhi. A mother brings her son to Gandhi and tells him that her son won't stop eating sugar. Gandhi tells the woman to come back in a week and he will be able to help her. A week later, she brings her son back to Gandhi and Gandhi looks the boy straight in the eye and says, "Don't eat sweets!" The mother protests, "Bapu, if that is all you needed to say, why didn't you say that last week when we came the first time?" And Gandhi told her, "Last week I was still eating sugar."
As a geo-political metaphor, your story is much closer to a revolution, or a neighboring state that has just ousted a dictator helping, through non-violent aid and education, another state to do the same; than to American overseas adventurism.
I was responding to AURaptor's "good men" quote that seems to imply that all you need is to be a good man and to take action and evil will be thwarted. It's quixotic nonsense.
HKCavalier
Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
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Quote:For a moment I thought you were talking about Cuday or South Central LA or Inglewood or Compton. My friend's neighborhood just has about five shootings in recent months. She no longer allows her girls to play in the front yard.
I often think of how terrible it would be to live in fear of sending children to school, or going out to buy groceries or sitting with a friend having coffee.
---------------------------------
Always look upstream.
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The problem with the US in Iraq is several-fold. First of all the US is no longer an occupying force. Absent that authority there is little the US can plan and carry out, either militarily or as aid. Second, the US no longer has a military function in Iraq. The bulk of the country has effectively broken up not just into two main camps (Shiite and Sunni) but into factions and tribes as well. There is no longer a clear 'insurgency' group. And third, sadly, the time for rebuilding and securing the country is long gone. The US and Iraq would have been FAR better off had the US spent time, money and lives in rebuilding rather than the complete waste of chasing the military phantoms of the catchphrase de jour.
The cure WOULD have been compassion, if it had been applied early.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
The US and Iraq would have been FAR better off had the US spent time, money and lives in rebuilding rather than the complete waste of chasing the military phantoms of the catchphrase de jour.
I hear this about Afghanistan as well and it makes me think. What good does rebuilding do if there is no security? Why build up the infrastructure when it will become a target? I'm all for developmental aid and the rebuilding process but security must come first IMHO.
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