An epiphany

An epiphany!

Long-time readers of this blog know that I have in the past had to put on my flame retardant underwear to avoid heated comments from commenters who disagreed with my perspective.  Goes with the territory I guess.   But one thing I could never quite figure out was the charge that I was “uncompassionate” or “unfeeling.”  I thought, how could anyone possibly know how I was “feeling” on a topic.  Or what was it about my writing, which I always tried make concise and clear, particularly on topics such as abortion and early induction, that gave the impression that I was a heartless, cold-hearted bitch?  

Originally I thought perhaps it was simply my stand.  After all, abortion and other pregnancy related issues are very highly emotionally charged.  Maybe it was just difficult for those readers to see how my stand could possibly be seen as compassionate, or sympathetic.

Today I was reading over on Cecily’s blog and see that President Bush is getting a similar wrap.Oh sure, there was a lot of stuff that went wrong with this rescue effort last week, but the attacks against the Prez are more over the type of person he is and how he “feels” as a human being.

Here were some examples.

“Where are the stories of how he was in his office freaking the f*ck out”

“I want to hear that he was panicked because I was panicked. Everyone I know was panicked. Everyone I know was gnashing their teeth with helpless rage because they couldn’t get in a car, drive down there, and drive a load of homeless Louisiana residents back home with them for soup and a goddamn hot bath. I want to hear that he acted at some point out of genuine despondency about the fact that citizens of the country he is supposed to be running were being starved and dehydrated in a hellish, fetid prison.

“i saw a clip of Bush speaking about the tragedy with his customary snicker and swagger — it was completely inappropriate and showed his total lack of human soul.”

Perhaps it’s because we live in the age of t.v. and movies, but it seems to me that one isn’t seen as “doing something” or as “caring” unless they are frenzied or publicly displaying emotions such as sadness, fear and anger?

And then I did go back and look at my own writings and it appears that, yep, that’s EXACTLY what was missing!! With one exception (which was tossed aside anyway) that appeal to emotion appears to be more important than actual words, actions and situations.

And that simply astounds me!