“What does it matter to me?”
I often find myself listening to talk radio during the mid-to-late morning hours. During these fine hours there are two voices that I am able to frequently switch between, both, as is normative for talk radio, are supposedly representative of the conservative/right wing point of view. Please take note of my usage of the word “supposedly” in the previous sentence, because I do not actually believe that these gentlem… errr.. these guys represent the right wing/conservative movement as a whole.
While there are, undoubtedly, plenty of crazies out there that will follow the beck and call (pun entirely intended) of these vocal leaders (9-12 group anyone?), I feel that, for the most part, the conservative movement cannot be comprised of those that do indeed think like the vociferous commentators on the radio. I’m sure (perhaps I should say, I hope) that there are plenty of more moderate, more intelligent, voices out there that are simply being drowned out by the more vocal minority of the conservative movement. This is then magnified by the amount of airtime given to this vocal minority, which then propagates more focus on these fringe groups.
Thus the vocal minority gains hegemony is far more likely to win the cause for which they are fighting.
This cannot happen. The vocal minority needs to be disarmed.
How? Compassion. Which is apparently the antithesis of their approach to the health care movement.
My example of the lack of compassion in the vocal minority comes from listening to dear Neal Boortz yesterday. While discussing health care he received a call from a listener that was asking Neal what should be done with a case like his (the caller’s), where as a diabetic it is monetarily impossible for him to attain health care through the independent market. After spending several minutes explaining the issue to Neal, the response the caller gets is “How is it my problem? Why should I be concerned with it? Why should it cost me anything?”
I was floored. I’ve heard plenty of insensitive things on talk radio before, but I’ve never heard anything to reach a level like that before. One could argue on a logical level that we receive inter-related benefits if everyone is healthy (if your workforce is sick, then you suffer on a national, perhaps even global, level). This man also represents a possible drain on resources by not having insurance and thus having to resort to the ER as a primary source of care, which in turn takes needed resources off the ER floor (which could have been avoided were this man able to see a GP previously). On a logical level, it matters quite a bit if this man is unable to receive insurance or not.
But beyond simply the intellectual property of logic, which many of the conservative vocal minority seem to lack (I’m looking at you Birthers), there is the necessary component of the human psyche called “compassion.” The issue should never have reached a point of “what does it matter to me” being asked, it should have ended with “I’m sick, and I need care.” I don’t care if this is a Judeo-Christian society or not, there is a common societal necessity that requires us to have some amount of compassion for the other.
These fine folks need to be shown compassion in their own lives to understand the necessity of showing compassion to others. So, when you find a birther, or a vocal anti health care rights folk, or a pro-war-pro-kill-em-all person, love ‘em. Find where they need compassion and show it.
(I need to follow my own advice on this one.)
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