Have we all gone crazy? Has the world lost its compassion? Is ‘God dead’? In this brave new world these are the questions that people are asking of us. Has the world lost its compassion? In September of this year a crowd cheered for the death of another human being who theoretically couldn’t afford health insurance. Similar people are calling for the murder of illegal immigrants who cross into the United States. And on Fox News this past month Ann Coulter has brought us straight back to the age of slavery! (Please note my exclamation point. I don’t use these often.) She claims, “Our Blacks are better than their Blacks.” This, the exact propaganda rich slave owners’ declared for their right to enslave African Americans and promote racism in the United States.
All these obscenities make it feel more like 1811, not 2011. Ann Coulter’s directly racist comment, uttered to make Herman Cain look better than Barack Obama, is an injustice to the decades of work African Americans have put forth to stop this direct racism. Furthermore, when people want to see illegal immigrants murdered because they cross over the United States border for a better life, it is a world that doesn’t reflect modern civilization, but a world in which we used to chase and murder thousands of Native Americans from what was their land. The New World invaders are now mad at the new invaders for coming into a land that they themselves took from someone else. (Invaders: a term used by many of the Right to describe illegal immigrants.)
And let’s not leave the obscurities to politics. Just last week after the firing of coach Paterno at Penn State, many of the students rioted not for the abused children but for the firing of their legendary coach.
Where is the compassion? Herman Cain who is now dealing with sexual harassment accusations, although an unrelated topic, has taken a similar stance when addressing the situations. Cain didn’t fire back at Coulter to boast that all African American are equal and none are of lesser quality. He didn’t take any higher ground – something that not only demeans himself, but affirms Coulter’s comments.
In all of this can we claim that humans are more civilized or enlightened? People are valuing such insignificant and finite objects such as money, sports, and politics over the life of fellow humans. The basic needs of life- health, shelter and safety - have been abandoned. Maybe the world has gone crazy.
