[Janice D. Soderling]

Norman, you probably mean well, but you don't make sense. You seem to write down only every third or fourth political cliché in your thought process. That makes it hard to follow your reasoning. For me anyway. Maybe it is crystal clear to others.

[John Whitworth]

But takig Syrians into their houses is precise;y what many god people have offered to do. Putting it all o the state seems rather mean-minded. In other words I suggest, in a totally non-blustery way, some left-leaning people are hypocritical. It is their besetting sin. For me, my family comes first, my friends come next and other people a long way down the list. That may be horrid but it is not hypocritical.

Muslims have plenty of countries to live in where their religion is all there is. And many of these countries have plenty of space and plenty of money.

[Quincy Lehr]

Whatevs, dudebro.

First off, the number of exclusively Muslim countries is roughly equal to the number of entirely Christian countries. Secondly, the charge of hypocrisy is a classically spurious one, being a variation of, "If you don't like capitalism, why do you buy food and socks and magazines and whatthef**keverelse at stores?" It's tedious, with the answers being kind of obvious if one thinks about it for not very long at all.

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

But takig Syrians into their houses is precise;y what many god people have offered to do. Putting it all o the state seems rather mean-minded. In other words I suggest, in a totally non-blustery way, some left-leaning people are hypocritical. It is their besetting sin. For me, my family comes first, my friends come next and other people a long way down the list. That may be horrid but it is not hypocritical.

Muslims have plenty of countries to live in where their religion is all there is. And many of these countries have plenty of space and plenty of money.

[Don Jones]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Roger Slater]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

For me, my family comes first, my friends come next and other people a long way down the list. That may be horrid but it is not hypocritical.

Muslims have plenty of countries to live in where their religion is all there is. And many of these countries have plenty of space and plenty of money.

But John, is everyone who is not in your family or your circle of friends a Muslim? I imagine there are a few white Christians who are not in your family and you are not friends with, so I'm wondering why you think it's "fair" for them to stay but you want the Muslims to leave?

[Norman Ball]

Come on Janice, you're more than capable of backfilling the cliches I leave out.

[Julie Steiner]

Everything we call "evil" or "monstrous" or "inhuman" relates in some way to a lack of empathy.

As someone who has struggled with empathy my entire life (and who has also closely observed a number of criminally-inclined, empathy-deficient relatives), I'm fascinated by the limits of empathy among supposedly normal people.

It seems normal to condemn the lack of empathy that allows terrorists to commit mass murder. And yet--sometimes in the same breath as condemning the terrorists' lack of empathy--apparently upstanding and patriotic citizens are exhorting each other to turn off their empathy for entire classes of human beings, because these undesirables are insufficiently like "us", and somehow deserve their fate of almost certain death if denied aid.

Aren't the victims just as dead due to a lack of empathy, whether they are gunned down or bombed or left to drown or die of exposure or starvation?

What does seem clear is that failures to empathize are not "inhuman" or "monstrous." Such failures seem all too characteristically human.

Normal, even.

I don't know how anyone else feels about it, but I feel sad and frustrated.

[Roger Slater]

I wonder if there will be a similar graphic posted seventy years from now on behalf of yet another group of refugees as we look back at our shamefully unwelcoming attitude toward Syrians.

[John Whitworth]

I am reminded of Mrs Jellaby (I expect I have spelled that wrong) in 'Bleak House'.

[Roger Slater]

And I am reminded of Ebeneezer Scrooge, before the ghosts came.