As always, I read the feedback section in the local paper tonight and feel the need to do some feedback of my own. The following comment got under my skin:
Are we crazy? How can we take in thousands of Haitians? We are in debt over our heads, unemployment is over 10 percent and we are going to add thousands of Haitians to the welfare rolls. I feel sorry for their problems, but this is ridiculous.
I know from experience that there are many people who live in the same square mile of the city for their entire lives. Never getting out to meet new people or experience anything beyond what's comfortable. This does not mean they are bad people - just out of touch.
"Their problems" are never "our problems" because people from different countries or backgrounds are not found in that same square mile and therefore are not "us", but "they".
It's baffling to me that a human could look at another human who is in distress and classify them out of needing our help. Whether it's by race, or sexual-orientation, or country, or any other delineation. I wonder if the "us v. them" crowd watches A Christmas Carol every year and feels that they already got the lesson that the pre-revelation Scrooge did not.
Do those that exclude get up for popcorn during this exchange between Marley and Scrooge? Or do they sit there and nod, not comparing this exchange to their own actions?
Scrooge: But it was only that you were an honest man of business!
Jacob Marley: BUSINESS? Mankind was my business! Their common welfare was my business!
Sadly, my guess is that they do the latter.
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