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A co-worker doesn't understand why anyone sends tsunami relief.

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Swede Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:45 PM
Original message
A co-worker doesn't understand why anyone sends tsunami relief.
He's not a bad guy,just a joe sixpack. I felt rage when he first said that. Those countries never send relief here,etc. I tried to tell him what a privilege it is to live in the West. When was the last time he was hungry or scared? Jesus wept.
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:50 PM
Response to Original message
1. compassion
is borne of suffering. He's never suffered.

I guess we have to go through the whole cycle again.
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Swede Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 01:42 PM
Response to Reply #1
7. My heart aches for these people.
It is an actual sore tightness in the chest when I see these families. How can you not feel for these people?
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Liberal Veteran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:50 PM
Response to Original message
2. I think you are displaying one of our true weaknesses...
...why you make excuses for his lack of compassion and say he's "not a bad guy".

By definition, charity means giving without expecting something in return.

Compassion is not a quid-pro-quo activity.

Someone who is so self-absorbed they cannot see the horror that nature is unleashed on these people, doesn't strike me a "good person".

We are WAY too willing to give our fellow countrymen like this the benefit of the doubt when they show what they are really made of.
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candy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
3. He's a cheap bastard,that's all----Probably a big tipper at the bar
though,because it makes him look like a great guy!
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RC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
4. To all to many people, the rest of the world
is the same as theirs. Having never traveled outside the United States, or even much within the US and visited other cultures, how could they know?
Our schools and TV sure are doing a poor job of showing anything except how great the US is.
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Cuban_Liberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:56 PM
Response to Original message
5. A line from an e-mail a Marine buddy sent me today stands out:
Edited on Sat Jan-08-05 01:03 PM by Cuban_Liberal
An old Indonesian man:

"Because you brought us water and food, we have hope again. We know someone cares."

Ask your co-worker if he's ever not had food and water; if he says 'no', then tell him he should immediately get down on his knees and thank God.

:eyes::grr:
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Bzzzz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 01:48 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Thankful, yes...
but whose god, what god?:shrug:
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 02:08 PM
Response to Reply #5
13. God is not giving them food
that Marine is; if that aid wasn't available those people would STARVE
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SHRED Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 12:59 PM
Response to Original message
6. Typical
Edited on Sat Jan-08-05 01:00 PM by SHRED
So many repugs brainwashed by the rightwing echo machine. Those sentiments are the same as Michael Savage, Dittohead, etc... so I wonder where your coworker got that idea? hummm...

We get fat, at the expense of the rest of the world, here in the good ole U.S. of A and there are cretins like your coworker running around thinking the world "owes" us?
Fucking idiots.

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HEyHEY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 01:57 PM
Response to Original message
9. Relief for WHAT??!
A traffic jam?
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saltpoint Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 01:58 PM
Response to Original message
10. He may question the idea of sending aid --
-- because his house is still standing and his family and friends are still alive.

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Liberal Veteran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 02:00 PM
Response to Original message
11. It's like living in a mansion and asking why the people who use food banks
...never show up to stock the pantry in the mansion.

And how come those elderly people never pay for my prescription drugs?
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DulceDecorum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-05 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
12. He has no humanity
so he cannot feel their pain,
nor see their tears.
He is not bonded to them in any way.
He is inhuman.

I myself react in much the same manner as he
when I hear that a swarm of locusts has been eradicated.
Insecticide does not bother me.
I am not bonded to insects.

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