I read the news and related articles on a daily basis and I can’t help but feel a sense of sadness when I read about the lack of compassion communicated by leaders and potential leaders in America.
My Family took in refugees from Laos, Cambodia, and VietNam in the 70's. My Uncle, while serving as a green beret, married a Vietnamese girl named DING (and yes I made fun of her name) to get her out of the country because her family was killed or separated, she was going to die, in fact, it would have been highly probable that the US would have done it (According to my Uncle, the green beret).
I'm very thankful I saw this compassion and love as a child. My mother, the only girl of six children, never knew her father and never finished the eighth grade. My mother left school when she was just 13 and worked. I watched us struggle with many things, but I was always taught to be kind and help ANYONE that needs it. I remember my mother leaving the house at dinner to take food to someone that had none, and as recent as my last visit with her, she and her neighbor made lunch and dinner and took it to the park where 4 kids, that had been evicted from their house, were sitting on a bench while their mom was at work trying to make money for her family. (She was just evicted). Mom believes in God, a God that protects and cares for us through other people. Mom doesn't go to any organized services and SHE IS A SAINT.
My Dad was placed in a home in upstate New York at the age of 5, and left there through the great depression until he ran away to find a better life. He went to Puerto Rico to seek out family members where he stayed with an aunt and made a few dollars hustling the "numbers" racket for the mob. Eventually, he would join the Merchant Marines and serve in WWII. He worked two jobs to help and made time to practice baseball. He did what he was able to do and to help where he could.
Growing up in a "Catholic" home taught me how to rely on God, a God that didn't always come the way I would expect Him to or in the time frame that I desire. I remember one time my parents struggled to make my tuition and the good sisters let me stay in the convent from 5:30 am until classes started so my mom could get to work on time. There was never a hint of "money owed" from the sisters that helped form my view of the world.
My life has been full of experiences that have led me to believe in God and I have been given a sense of hope that has guided me through the most turbulent waters imaginable.
If you are kidnapped and taken to a prison camp for being Jewish, can you find hope? You did nothing. Your crime is that you are Jewish and one person was so full of hate that they spewed that on you and now you must surely die in that prison. Can you find hope, compassion, and love for your captors and toward the one that gave the order? Can you Love humanity?
When will we learn? Violence begets violence. Terrorism begets terrorism. Hate breeds hate. The hippies had it right, Love, Peace, and Joy. I seem to recall an ancient hippie profess the same thing.
Forgive someone, TODAY! Your peace will be "unsurpassable and beyond your understanding."
May God have Mercy on us ALL.
