Now if only my mother agreed with you. Odd what we can still think of at 55.
Anyway--I understood at the time. Have been shrill enough in my day--even hereon as you may be aware. Have been reevaluating and trying to reserve ultimate shrillness for ultimate issues and battles.
And, personally, I feel our fellow FR friend may be as misguided in this or that area or group of areas as any of the rest of us. . . . it can be more glaring in some of us than in others.
I can see stupidity as much as anyone--I think--as well as short-sightedness, selfishness, thinking with one's emotions instead of one's head; etc. . . . and plenty often my mirror points as painful a finger as any. For some reason, my heart went out to our FR colleague more than my indignation. . . . maybe because I grew up in New Mexico. . . . and my mother grew up poor white trash in the South in the depression--pulling cotton at age 6 "with the niggers" as she called them then.
I can still remember driving by somewhere on some country road--passing a wood slat house with a porch and a thin blackwoman looking 9+ months very pregnant--and my mother doing her typical finger shake at me and saying--"See that woman--just because her skin is darker than yours, don't you ever think you're one bit better--you hear me? Don't you ever forget it."
And I never have.
Yes, certain groups of people can have certain characteristic flaws when coming from the same cultural or socio-economic hardships.
WASPS are no different. Our flaws may be more socially acceptable and even lauded. But God's perspective may be just as severe regarding them as ours is severe regarding someone we view as one or a hundred down from us.
Has WASP workaholism destroyed more families and filled more prison cells with sons lacking sufficient fatherly affection to feel secure, worthwhile, loved than have drunken black absentee fathers? I don't know. But I wouldn't want to place a bet on it either way.
Maybe the only difference between the heart,values,desire and ability to earn their way etc. of a wetback and some of us is--that their backs are just not dry quite yet.
And I still feel that if compassion is too difficult for me to have,then I may not be as deserving of it as I prefer to think I am when I turn the light off at night,finish my evening prayers and prepare to sleep.
Compassion is as much a reverence for potential as it is a lifestyle or set of habits or a given background or skin color or hairstyle and dress. Compassion says God made you, too. I will reverence you at least until you force me not to by repeated deliberately destructive behavior. How can I do less given that The One who died for me also died for you--and--made you as much as He made me.
Yeah, your choices and even habits may have been more counter productive, even out right viscious and destructive perhaps in a list of ways much more than mine. And blaming one's background extends a very limited distance.
Nevertheless, background is a factor. Who knows what I would have become with their background. . . . worse is at least a possibility.
In terms of immigration therefore what. . . I think we have to have responsibleand probably pretty tight borders at this point in our era. I don't believe they will be that way. I believe Mexico will invade wholesale at some point whether with the Chinese or with masses of people eager for more of the good life and a chance to routinely buy or work at the nearest nice southwestern/Calif mall.
We could have behaved more responsibly regarding Mexico. We haven't for decades. We winked at the corruption if not aided and abet it. We could have facilitated removal of corruption in our own lap and then offered humbly to help selected honorable Mexican citizens with theirs.
We could have helped raise the standard of living a list of ways that were truly honorable and generous, humble, practical . . . Christian since we prefer to think of ourselves as a Christian nation--at least most of us do.
If we'd treated them as kid brothers instead of groveling servants, we might have even ended up with intensely loyal hemispheric colleagues. They might have even ended up with an oil policy very generous toward us. We might not have had a host of the central American problems we ended up with.
But we didn't choose that route. It was business, corruption, CIA intrigue and the lot as usual.
Envy of honorable stature is one thing. Aspiring to reach a lofty height is enlivening, heartening, upbuilding.
Jealousy of BILLDO AND SHRILLERY because of their power, wealth, prestige, privilege etc. is corruptive at the core. And when onlookers get a chance to undermind BILLDO AND SHRILLERY AND STEP UP OVER THEIR DEAD BODIES you can bet they will.
And the fact is, as demonstrated by the POPULATION'S response to the impeachment process not to mention the last election--there are a HOST of BILLDO'S AND SHRILLERIES running around loose corrupting our land, media and international image bigtime.
And all of us bear some responsibility. We have all looked too much the other way too much in favor of convenience instead of honorable freedom persistently fought and bled for.
irreverent even irrational scapegoats are convenient to castigate. But in a list of respects, our mirrors would be a better place to clear things up, first. . . . at least with ourselves and with God.
And I, too, am not feeling any animus toward you . . . just using your comment to think out loud along a topic have been pondering a bit over recent years.