Reply #226: What strikes me at this moment is the contrast between the great

[Nothing Without Hope]

concern, sadness and compassion being poured out for this one person and those close to her and the vast uncaring silence over the genocide in Darfur, the deaths on all sides in Iraq, all the deaths from all causes even in our own country alone. And the quality of life for even the ones still alive is often horrible.

Mrs. Schiavo was not aware of what was happening around her. Almost all of these other ruined or ended lives are those of people who are fully aware of their suffering. Yet the Bush administration and the wailing extremist religious fanatics they court do not care about the suffering and death of the people who can feel it. It is not the compassion for Mrs. Schiavo's situation that is wrong, it's the lack of it for the many thousands of others. The loudness of the wailing sounds very false because it is solely directed at that one unknowing brain-dead person.

There's something profoundly wrong with this, and also with the fact that so many see no disjunction in this situation.

The heartless hypocrisy screams, but how many hear it?