Mister President, Compassion is More Than A Word

What would you say if you could meet President Bush? I suspect about half of you would praise him, and half would silently eye the secret service guards surrounding him and say nothing. This is what I would say.

"Mister President, you call yourself a compassionate conservative, but I just don't see it. Maybe you just have a different idea of what compassion is, but let me tell you what compassion is to me.

"Mister President, Compassion is realizing that there are good people in Iraq. There is a man somewhere in Iraq -- a good, hardworking, upright man. He has lived with terrorism every day of his life. Now he leaves his house in the morning wondering if it will be the anti-American militias or the American army that tries to kill him today. Compassion is having the restraint to let good people live no matter how many others you have to let live in the process.

"Compassion, Mister President, is turning to the 8.0 million actively looking for work (ref), recognizing that they are good, hardworking people, and being willing to provide them with the food, housing, and money that they need to get by, without worrying about how many lazy ones might get something they don't deserve.

"Compassion is looking at the people who have lost their life savings in a scandal like Enron, and doing whatever it takes to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again -- even, Mister President, if it means stifling some corporate profits in the process.

"Compassion is looking at one of the 45 million Americans without health insurance (ref) and being willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they don't suffer from preventable and treatable illnesses, even if it costs some money. While others have suggested providing all people with the care they need, you have resisted in favor of forcing low-income families into "Low premium, high-deductible health plans" (ref) -- In short, putting our nation's most vulnerable families into health plans that deny them routine care. That, Mister President, is not compassion.

"In short, Mister President, compassion is being willing to forego your self-righteousness and arrogance. It's being willing to let a few people get more than they deserve to make sure that everyone has what they need. It's being willing to make the sacrifice to pay more dollars in taxes to have fewer people in need. It's looking at, and believing in, individual people, even people with problems, and seeing potential, not a faceless group.

"In fact, Mister President, when you think about it, compassion means doing all of the things you refuse to do."

No Comments! Be brave and leave the first one!:

Name:
Email:
URL:
Comment:			/ Textile
Enter this code:
( Register your username / Log inChange Settings for )
Notify:		Yes, send me email when someone replies.
Small print: All html tags except <b> and <i> will be removed from your comment. You can make links by just typing the url or mail-address.