I read a comment to a post this morning and it has been on my mind much of today [View all]

[NewHendoLib]

I don't remember the specific words, but it was in reference to a post on the Israel Hamas situation - the comment said something like "why do we have to pay attention to things like this that happen in other countries and have no direct effect on us" - that was the gist. I think the intent meant was it was creating much angst on DU, some division, and life is complicated enough for many of us without having to try to make sense out of something that is "so far away?.

I rolled that around in my head - it surprised me, but we are all different - some of us can handle complexity, horrors, death, wars better than others. But news and social media make this a much smaller world, of course. Some of us here will be directly and deeply impacted by what is going on.

But mostly I think it is important to try to understand history - it is important to understand empathy, it is important to understand how things in the world tie together and potential risks we may face from it. Curiosity, information, thinking beyond and outside of ourselves has to be a good thing. I think it is one of the things that signify liberals and Democrats, anyway.

Hope that wasn't too garbled - often I have a thought that is clear when it is in my noggin, but gets scrambled when I try to put it down to words.