How to kill compassion
The foulest way to kill compassion is to make it official; the second is give awards for it; the third is to cast compassion as a competitive endeavor. Is compassion best served when public entities funded by tax dollars like the University of Louisville Law school declare themselves officially intent on compassion? Is compassion best served when another taxpayer funded entity, Passport Healthcare Plans, has a hand in an event that “recognizes and honors” healthcare workers who exemplify “true” compassion? Do media outlets crowing about our work in compassion among other awards, touting this community as better than others elsewhere, truly serve compassion?
Given the practical nature of compassion what most theologians, spiritual practitioners, and thoughtful seekers discover is that the best way to ‘promote’ compassion is to receive it. The second best way is to give it anonymously in the tradition of mitzvah and the third way is in small groups intent on learning: practicing acts and projects of compassion in a close knit spirit of adventure and joy de vivre.
The hidden, the random and the not-so-random acts of kindness and larger scale efforts of do-goodery are best prepared without government coordination, without tax dollars, and without political usurpers intent on commandeering the best intentions of various faith traditions and nongovernmental organizations. Louisvillians of good will and good faith have, can and will continue to enliven this region’s palpably ingrained sense of empathetic service to others — hopefully unsullied in the future by the superfluous trappings of pronouncements, media coverage, awards, luncheons, plaques, speeches, tax monies, religious and political dignitaries, public relations departments and press releases. —Rev. Doug Lowry, Jan. 18
on “#RefugeesWelcome”
I would like to welcome refugees to the greatest nation on Earth! —Donald Wayne Cooper
on “Your Voice”
A revenue neutral carbon fee with a dividend, makes enormous sense say economists of every political persuasion. This way citizens would recieve the carbon fees as a monthly check, for example. That would cancel out any price spikes in dirty energy, protecting the poor. Polluters pay the fees, so it holds fossil fuel corporations responsible for the damages they cause, hundreds of billions of dollars per year (Harvard School of Medicine). It would more rapidly lower emissions than regulations, as happened in BC Canada with a similar, popular policy. BC lowered both emissions and taxes with their fees. The respected non-partisan Regional Economic Modeling, Inc. found the dividends would help to create 2.9 million additional jobs in 20 years, while reducing emissions much faster than EPA regulations. http://citizensclimatelobby.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/REMI-National-SUMMARY.pdf. To those who reject the science: perhaps nothing will change your mind. But what have you got against cleaner air, less asthma in our kids, fewer heart attacks, and more money (the dividend) in your pockets?. To those accepting the science: You know the cost of sea level rise alone is so great that any effort to limit it is warranted. Why even bother with the paid deniers and front groups who thrive creating the delay of a false debate? Elon Musk was asked “what can we do? “ Musk: Write Congress to enact a carbon tax. We have to fix the unpriced externality. “I would talk to your friends about it and fight the propaganda from the carbon industry.” —Jan Freed, Jan. 21