Humanity and Empathy

During January, I struggled to reconcile what I know and have experienced about humanity

and empathy with events that are capturing the headlines and causing heartbreak across this country and the world.  We humans have a seemingly limitless capacity to cause injury both physical and emotional to our fellow humans.  We also are capable of incredibly heroic,

loving and empathetic actions and unselfishly sacrificing for complete strangers   Incidents of astounding brutality, barbarism and savageness have been and are being committed to this day within the bounds of the United States. The common root cause is lack of empathy and acknowledgment of our shared humanity. Lack of empathy is one of a myriad of factors that have been associated with a propensity to harm or torture animals.  In recent political discourse, it has been alarming to see and hear numerous prominent political figures discount and devalue the quality of empathy. I see this retreat as the first step to reaching a point when our humanity in general and at large scale itself is devalued, denigrated and destroyed.  Frankly, I can’t help but seeing the 2020 killing of George Floyd linked with the killing of Renee Good, geographically less than a mile apart, as a most alarming slide into a reality when human life itself is devalued. Victims of violence and death are framed as the perpetrators in the wrong. 

I look also on the other side of the equation, and ask how individuals ostensibly charged with societal protection, morph into the actual instruments of death and “punishment.”  I’m going to state something that should be obvious: Civil societies don’t do these things. We can look at the atrocities of slavery, the brutality and oppression of the Jim Crow period after the formal end of slavery in this country, to the internment of Japanese Americans, to the horrors of the Holocaust and slaughter of millions of Jewish people and ask how on earth did this start? I’m not naive; the United States has a history of strong-arming and

brutalizing populations in favor of profit, power and might.  I feel deeply that the time for this reprehensible behavior is past, and the price for these actions must be atoned for and paid.  I also question how did the physical abuse, denial of medical care and proper food of ICE detainees become OK?  We are at a point when our humanity hangs on a thread, and our empathy seems to be sliding unchecked down the drain.  We must act on our humanity and empathy rather than expediency, greed and animus.

“For this reason, empathy is the greatest form of resistance, because it’s much harder to abandon someone if you can imagine yourself in their pain. This is especially true in the final stages of authoritarian consolidation of power, when the people capitulate in the hope that it will keep them safe.”

Is it all about self-preservation? Plausible deniability? Or some fever dream that “it can’t happen to me?”  The repeated references to Martin Niemöller’s poem should burst that bubble immediately.  And as a matter of being historically correct, I will point out that Niemöller was initially an anti-Semite, and supporter of Adolf Hitler.  After the war, he was regretful that he hadn’t done more to help victims of the Nazi regime.  I find myself heartbroken at the loss of life of individuals in ICE custody in 2025, the shooting of LA resident Keith Porter by an off-duty ICE officer on New Years eve, and the most recent killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti. 

I find the humanity and empathy of those in national government and law enforcement seriously in question.  Rule by fear, force and might is like the proverbial “Dark Side” of The Force that was discussed in Star Wars.  I pray with all that is within me that somehow love, compassion and hope come to be prevalent in the actions of those currently in power.  I will always believe that the power of love is, ultimately, stronger than the love (and exercise) of power.  My opt in is in favor of humanity and empathy. I hope it’s a trend that catches on.