Reply #53: Is this the US? Whatever happened to the vaulted empathy this country was famous for?

[1monster]

But then I remember the treatment of the Native Americans, some of which still goes on to this day. I remember that this country was founded with the monkey of slavery on its back and the overt racially motivated civil rights outrages that went on from the Civil War to the nineteen seventies when they went underground to covert and the racism which is becoming more and more overt in the last ten years. Then there is the vicious campaign against Muslims, even Muslims who were born in this country and are natural born citizen for several generations.

The viciousness of the partisan politics has become a large part of our country since 2001. I lost many on line friendships over politics and recently lost a long time real life friend because I could no longer stomach the political hate and bitterness that has infected one I considered a dear friend at one time.

I wish I could consider those comments an aberration, but I know it is not.

The difference between times when our best reactions were sympathy, empathy, and action to help and the times when these comments are shouted out loud is our public reaction.

In the good times, biggoted, hateful comments like those are publically shamed and one who got caught uttering or advocating such would find him/herself condemned.

In the bad times, web pages like these reinforce the ugliness of ignorant and unhappy people and provide a safe haven for those who spew hate. Such comments are given way to much attention as just normal comments.

Someone should remind these hateful, at-best-ethnocentric bigots that our involvment in World War II and Pearl Harbor attack were SEVENTY (70) years ago. Almost all of the leaders of time are long dead. Those who participated in WWII and who live are in their eighties and nineties. How many of the people posting on that page were even alive during WWII? Damned few I guess.

Even if the United States hand were pristine clean, this kind of attitude would be digusting. But the hands of the US are far from clean...