United Nations Report: Counterterrorism measures are unfair to transgendered people
The United Nations has written a report, still to be approved by the general assembly, that claims that counterterrorism measures are unfair to transgendered people.
The theory goes something like this: Because,with rare exceptions, all of the suicide bombers have been male, some suicide bombers disguise themselves as female to avoid detection. Because of this if you are a female who looks masculine than you run the risk of being stopped and unfairly “harassed.” Hence, if you are transgendered you may be stopped and questioned because you may look like a terrorist masquerading as a female.
Enhanced immigration controls that focus attention on male bombers who may be dressing as females to avoid scrutiny make transgender persons susceptible to increased harassment and suspicion
The United Nations report basically states that counterterrorism measures are unfair to transgendered people because they may be profiled in the effort to thwart terrorism. That leads me to ask the question, is profiling wrong?
If the police have a description of a person who committed a violent crime and they stop and question all of those people who fit the description is that profiling? Yes it is. Is it wrong? No it isn’t. If I fit the description of a man who had committed a crime and I was “harassed” by the police I would not take offense to it, I would rest assured knowing that the police were doing their job. Profiling, it would seem to me, is a vital part of law enforcement, but we have reached a point with the politically correct mindset that suddenly questioning people who fit a description of a criminal is wrong.
There is no difference between the scenario that I laid out above and stopping a person who may fit the description of a terrorist, even if that person is of a group that the politically correct crowd is trying to protect at the risk of endangering innocent lives. Is it really that troublesome to a person to be detained for a few minutes if it ensures that the lives of innocent people could be saved?
If this is the point that we have reached than we should just give up all of our counterterrorism efforts. There is no point in continuing them. We can just sit back and hope that we don’t get hit again, kind of like we did before September 11th. And if we do get hit again, fuck it, we deserve it. We haven’t learned anything, it is a shame.
America's Watchtower 
PCness runs amok and the world suffers even more FROM this bullshit!
LikeLike
Shaking my head in disbelief right now. We have people blowing themselves up, along with innocent civilians and they are worried that someone who is a homosexual and transgender may be getting harassed? Give me a break.
LikeLike
I’m Intersexed – my body’s neither wholly male nor wholly female. Worse, my particular IS condition involves dichogamy, a change from looking like one sex at birth to the other later. Although technically I’m not transsexual, most would class me as transgendered because of that, and I don’t get a say in it.
I have had immense problems travelling overseas. Something to do with the passport saying “F” (based on medical reality) and the Birth Certificate saying “boy”. Yes, it’s worse than an inconvenience, others in a similar situation have ended up jailed, raped and killed. I have to be careful which immigration centre I enter the USA in for example, most are OK, some it could be a death sentence. Putting a woman in an Immigration holding facility for men is like throwing meat to the lions. It’s happened, and the worse thing is, in today’s security climate, you don’t even get the chance to use a sliver of glass to open your veins and kill yourself before things get too bad.
So if anyone has a right to say that this report is Politically Correct BS, I do. And I do. Yes, I have real problems that should be addressed. But for goodness’ sake, the Global War on Terror is a War, and it’s not unreasonable that people in an usual situation like me might get some extra problems because of that. This whole report is nothing but PC BS.
And as we can walk and chew gum at the same time, while we’re defeating the Jihadis, maybe we can look at the rubbish people like me have to deal with too. But let’s show some intelligence and make preventing any more 9/11s a higher priority.
LikeLike
Zoe,
It would seem that you do not belong with the transgender or transsexual crowd at all. In my view, they are more about mutilation and sexual experimentation rather than a physical birth…of a strange or unusual kind. Obviously, I do not quite know how to put it, what you have said about yourself, but you are a person that I would feel like standing up for in a case of sexual harrassment. You sound like someone who actually has a legitimate claim on a sexual orientation question. That aside, common sense seems to prevail in you whatever your disposition is physically. Take care.
LikeLike
There was a case in Texas many years back that made the national news. It occured in a small Texas town, don’t recall the name. The case centered around the rape of a young white girl by a black man. The town in which the rape occured only had a handful of black residents and as best I can recall only six black males in the age group of the suspected rapist were in the town. To make a long story short all the young black men were rounded up and put in a lineup where the victim pointed out her rapist. This was certainly a case of racial profiling, but one in which the guilty party was found. Profiling has its place in police work and those who oppose it have a hidden agenda that is not in the interest of the public at large, but in the interest of certain special interest groups.
LikeLike
You’re a RACIST… 😛
But, I am too… LMAO 😛
LikeLike
It seems simple to me, if a balck man commits a crime than police profile black men to find the criminal. Likewise if a white person commits a crime. Profiling is not a crime, it is a necessary tool used by law enforcement.
LikeLike
Hi G.F.
The evidence that we have is that Transsexual people are Intersexed too, neurologically.
I see little difference between a person with female neurology and otherwise male anatomy, and a person with female neurology and anatomy that looks male – even if her appearance changes naturally later. Technically she’s not transsexual, but she looks male originally, then that changes. That it’s a natural rather than therapeutically-assisted process seems to me like a trivial detail, of no real importance. Psychologically speaking, she’s identical. She feels the same terrible wrongness with a male-appearing body, the innate sense that this was all so terribly perverted and awful, and feels the same immense relief when the situation changes, no matter what the terrible consequences might be to her life.
Some of the hundreds of medical and scientific papers on the subject:
1.DF Swaab, WC Chung, FP Kruijver, MA Hofman, TA Ishunina
Structural and functional sex differences in the human hypothalamus
Horm Behav. Sep, 2001; 40(2): 93-8.
2. DF Swaab
Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation
Gynecol Endocrinol. Dec, 2004; 19(6): 301-12.
3.IE Sommer, PT Cohen-Kettenis, T van Raalten, AJ Vd Veer, LE Ramsey, LJ Gooren, RS Kahn, NF Ramsey
Effects of cross-sex hormones on cerebral activation during language and mental rotation: An fMRI study in transsexuals
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. Mar 2008; 18(3): 215-21.
4.H Berglund, P Lindstrom, C Dhejne-Helmy, I Savic
Male to female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids
Cereb Cortex. Aug 2008; 18(8): 1900-8.
As Prof Ecker wrote to me after his presentation to the American Psychiatric Association on the subject:
“Yes, we gave our presentation to 60 plus psychiatrists from the US, AU, FR, IT, EU, UK, Holland etc.
We spoke for 2 1/2 hours on why cross gender identity was a normal inherited variation of humans. We showed how Transgender Brains think, smell, and hear like the opposite sex.”
He should have said “transsexual”, but never mind. The point is, this isn’t a matter of political or philosophical belief, of “lifestyle choice”, it’s a matter of anatomy, objectively measurable. While it’s a gross over-simplification to say “male brain in female body”, or the reverse, it’s close enough. Male and female brains differ at the cellular level, and trans people have brains that are cross-sexed in some important areas (and often other areas too).
Fixing this after the 26th week after conception is probably impossible, even if we had nanomachines to make changes within cells. It’s a lot easier to fix the rest of the body to match – especially since if the brain is cross-sexed, the rest of the body often has some degree of Intersex too from the same anomaly in the womb.
Unfortunately not many people know these facts, it’s not widely publicised. Too great an interest in sexual abnormalities is deemed unhealthy, so it’s not exactly an appropriate subject for public discussion. Hence the common misconceptions about transsexual people being merely homosexuals, or living a “lifestyle choice”, or having a mental illness or mutilation fetish. I can’t blame anyone for not knowing the facts, as I said, they’re not exactly common knowledge, even amongst medical professionals. I know, I’ve been called on by professors of medicine and psychology to give remedial instruction to their students on this.
OK, so while human rights for transsexual and intersexed people is important.. we have a war to fight. Let’s not take our eye of the ball.
LikeLike
Thanks Zoe for stopping by and sharing your story, it can’t be easy for you. I am grateful that you understood the main premise of my post was about national security and agree with it, coming from someone that has a real life experience with this it means alot. I know many people will read this post and misinterpret it as bashing transgendered people when that was not my intent. As you said, let’s not take our eye off the ball.
LikeLike
Hey Zoe,
Very interesting, but I don’t buy it, sorry. I do not give much credit to the APA . I’ve listened to plenty of their info get blasted by Dr. Laura, who can be quite the bitch, but who is no dummy either. I do not like, or accept, other “science” based info either. The AMA has used their scientific background to prop up Obama’s Health Reform plan, and whatever science is involved in Global Warming is also suspect, in my opinion. I am not a scientist, but I do have a degree in Math. It seems to me that politics just plays too big of a role in science these days -and I bet you would agree!
Neurologically a female or male, but physically the other, raises some good questions. Would there, or is there, the same kind of thing for people who are into bestiality, or pedophilia, or plain old adultery? Would they have minds suited to do those kinds of sexual things? Or thieves having minds for stealing, or murderers for murder, or drunks for drinking etc. In my view, these are all social ills of one kind or another. I do not believe that society should accommodate them.
I wrote some other comments on Mr. Pink Eyes site, July 12 Feedback, and a day or two ago on teaching homosexuality to 6 year olds, in case you want to check out some related info.
Last, but not least, we are on the same page concerning terrorists, is it neurologically or anatomically based? …I couldn’t resist. I apologize in advance!
Thanks for the forum Mr. Pink Eyes. I didn’t care much about the article you wrote because the whole profiling issue is mostly bullshit. I didn’t want to think about it.
LikeLike
You are welcome. When you say that the whole profiling issue is bullshit I assume that you don’t agree with me? I just think that if you have a description of a criminal that law enforcement should look at people who fit that description. I think that it is a necessary tool implemented by law enforcement. Why look at people who do not fit the description just in the interest of being politically correct, that is a waste of time and resources.
LikeLike
If you have a description of the criminal, then of course you should concentrate efforts on suspects who fit that description.
The problem comes when the description is not completely reliable. “A man of mediterranean appearance over 6 ft tall” won’t match a 5 ft albino, but could conceivably match a Korean of 5′ 10″.
When dealing with an enemy (let’s not mince words here) who adapts to our behaviour, then if we suddenly only concentrated entirely on, say, blue-eyed blondes as suspects, then they’d recruit brown-eyed blacks.
So in addition to most of the effort being concentrated on those who closely match the profile, we need some on those who match it less closely. Just to make sure there’s no safe zone.
Basically, I’d look at the physical characteristics of anyone and everyone who’s been credibly suspected of terrorist activity, and bias my efforts in accordance with that data. If there was one group that was unduly inconvenienced by this, then in order that justice may be done, I’d make sure that they were vetted well, and then the “all clear” for those particular people broadcast widely, when it was known that they were safe.
LikeLike
No, I do agree with you. Sorry about the misunderstanding. You are absolutely right. Frankly, someone needs to say what you have said. I just can’t stand it anymore. Political Correctness is a disease that could kill us. I have friends who are liberals, and they will defend everything that comes from the left no matter what. It is as if we live in different worlds.
LikeLike
I apologize. I understand what you are saying, it can be so frustrating sometimes that you just want to walk away and stop paying attention.
LikeLike
G.F –
“It seems to me that politics just plays too big of a role in science these days -and I bet you would agree!”
You’d win your bet.
Actually, a widely held APA view is that everyone is born psychosexually neutral, that there’s no difference between men and women, that gender is always determined by upbringing, and is in lockstep with Radical Feminist and Leftist Utopian philosophy. And that anyone who claims that their sex is different from their upbringing is by definition mentally ill, no matter what they look like.
Hence the need for this symposium – given by non-psychiatrists, but neurologists, urologists, geneticists etc – to say that the evidence from autopsies, fMRI scans, tests of smell and hearing etc etc says otherwise.
Seminar S10. The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism
1. Brain Gender Identity Sidney W. Ecker, M.D.
2. Transsexuality as an Intersex Condition Milton Diamond, Ph.D.
3. Novel Approaches to Endocrine Treatment of Transgender Adolescents and Adults Norman Spack, M.D.
We don’t know why (for example) a feminised hypothalamus, lymbic nucleus, right orbital gyrus and a few other structures universally leads to a female gender identity – even if other sexually dimorphic brain structures are masculinsed or ambiguous. Just that it does, with no observed exceptions.
We know that a brain-body mismatch caused by such a condition leads to misery so severe that half those who have it self-harm before age 20, if untreated. We know that the only treatment that works is hormone replacement to provide a normal neurochemical balance, and in those whose brain’s body-map is cross-sexed, reconstructive surgery too. That has a 98% success rate.
In animals, we can reliably induce transsexuality through appropriate hormonal manipulation in the womb. In humans, male foetusses exposed to the drug DES in the first trimester had a 1 in 5 chance of becoming transsexual women – a similar rate to that of phocomelia amongst foetusses exposed to Thalidomide. Neither drug is now in use.
I therefore don’t think the comparisons with pedophilia, necrophilia, kleptomania, alcoholism etc are terribly useful. Comparisons with congenital blindness due to neurological anomalies, autism or left-handedness, may be.
LikeLike
Hey Zoe-
It’s a pleasure to meet you! I am glad for the discussion. I’ll try to answer well.
The words “female gender” and “female gender identity” are, to me, rather ambiguous. I think they are supposed to describe two different things, but they don’t, for me. However, knowing what you have said about yourself, being born of both genders, it is surely not ambiguous to you. A “brain-body mismatch”, which I would tend to think of as modern liberal nonsense, is hardly that for you.
Concerning such condition leading to misery so severe that they often self-harm before age 20, that would be unfortunate. The only treatment being hormone replacement or reconstructive surgery, I do not accept.
Misery in life is not limited to this condition. I believe misery is always treatable although not necessarily curable. The treatment is, of course, belief in God, religion, an age old treatment for whatever ails you. Does it work? O f course it does. Hope, faith, and love are always good treatment for misery even if the cure is not attained. Are there statistics for the success of religion? Of course not. Statistics is a field of mathematics useful to science, but if statistics reduced a person’s hope, then it would be anthema to religion (and to any sane person wouldn’t it?).
If a 98% success rate for reconstructive surgery gave a person hope, I would not be surprised. If it was for a knee that made it possible for a person to walk again, who wouldn’t do it? If it is for someone’s sexual identity, I wonder what you are talking about. Changing one’s anatomy from a male to a female, or vice versa, to fix one’s identity conflict, i.e. misery, is pretty extreme. The only thing I can liken it to is from religion. Jesus said some extreme things about sin. If your hand causes you to sin, then cut it off, because it is better to have part of yourself in hell than your whole body, or something to that effect. I also believe that one famous Christian, Origen, early in the begining of the religion, castrated himself for God. I bring up these words of Jesus and Origen’s actions because they are extreme and because they are within the context of religion, the sacred, or faith. In the context of religion, in certain instances, bodily de-construction to avoid sin, or for faith in God, appears to have been permissible. Re-construction was not a medical possibility 2,000 yrs ago, almost like religious self-denial being nearly extinct today.
I could be with you on scientific facts, but I do not see the modern sexual poltical movement, i.e. Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual, Transgender issues, as anything bording on the sacred, or on self-restraint. It is just the opposite, so I am against it.
Mr. Pink Eyes, I hope this is consistent with the forum that you have provided. It seems to have gotten away from the profiling issue, but hopefully it contains some food for thought in any case.
LikeLike
As regards the GLBT politics – pass. It used not to be this way. Illinois in 1955, a time when Homosexuality was deemed next only to Communism as a threat to all that was good and right, allowed sex reassignment.
Since then though, the backlash against the Gay/Lesbian political push, and especially against same-sex marriage, has meant that there’s far less tolerance and understanding today than there was 50 years ago. I’ve been accused of being both Gay and Lesbian at the same time, by definition, regardless of who I may or may not be attracted to. The laws and court decisions in the US and elsewhere that have been passed in order to suppress Homosexuality have led to some ridiculous situations – intersexed women (some of whom have given birth) being “legally male” and their marriages anulled. Gay Transsexual men who have managed to marry other men in Bible Belt states, as they’re considered legally female, just to stop same-sex marriage.
A lawyer for the transgendered plaintiff in the Littleton case noted the absurdity of the USA’s state and county gender laws as they pertain to marriage:
Right now, in Kalamazoo, there’s a pamphlet circulating against giving “special rights” to Gays, which lists one trans woman by name as being a “sexual predator”. What they don’t mention was that her “crime” was refusing to provide her employer with pictures of her genitalia, as they required. They also don’t mention that one of the major opponents to a similar bill in Gainesville Florida was recently arrested for installing cameras in women’s changing rooms. The real perverts find intersexed and trans people good as scapegoats, even though in 34 years there’s not been a single example of them being accused of sexual predation in the 38% of the country that has such anti-discrimination laws.
There’s not just a lot of misunderstanding and pardonable ignorance out there, there’s a lot of blatant lying “for the greater good”. This is matched by equally mendacious statements by some Gay groups. They tend to see rights for trans and intersexed people – most of whom are straight – as bargaining chips, ambit claims to be traded away to get what they really want.
Example: the New Hampshire senate, on the same day they OK’d gay marriage, unanimously voted against extending to trans and intersexed people the same rights regarding discrimination in employment, housing etc that gays have enjoyed there for ten years. Not even the sponsors voted for it, after the horse-trading in the back-rooms. The organised scare campaign labelling all intersexed and trans people as sexual predators trying to invade women’s restrooms made the whole issue toxic too.
Another example: Last years’s Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, that would have provided similar protections at a Federal level originally included trans and intersexed people as well as gays. But Barney Frank stripped those out in order to increase the chance of passage in the House.
But enough of that. These issues, while important in that they are about what makes our society worth fighting for, should be secondary to the issue of fighting this war. You know that 60% of trans people are veterans? The highest proportion of any minority group. Devoting your life of misery to a worthwhile cause is one way of gaining a victory over fate, and if you’re lucky, you get to sacrifice a worthless life of pain to save others whose lives are worth living.
Of course after you retire, and do something about your condition, you don’t get much thanks. One ex-marine froze to death on some church steps recently in Texas in sub-zero temperatures, as homeless shelters in Austin don’t allow her kind in. That was the day after she’d sang “Silent Night” to the city council, she was something of a local personality.
Other vets don’t get treated nearly as well as they should by the VA, and we should do something about that too. But we have a war to win, for goodness’ sake! Obama and NATO have both dropped the ball in Afghanistan, and we need to do something about that PDQ. Iran will soon follow the Norks in getting Nukes ( and wasn’t that a Charlie Foxtrot), and that seems to me to be a higher priority just at the moment. So while there should be a discussion about TS and IS, now is not the place and time, and I don’t want to hijack this thread any more than I have done already.
I do think that DADT is a mistake, but could be wrong. It’s possible that the USA has a very different military culture than say, the UK, Canada, Australia, Israel etc, and what works for them may not work in a US context. Right now though it seems to me that neither side of US politics is taking this war seriously.
Example: Col Diane Schroer was deemed far and away the best candidate as advisor to congress and analyst for the Library of Congress. Nobody else came close, ex-special forces, ex-airborne, headed a counter-terrorism taskforce before she retired – but as soon as they found out she was transsexual, her employment offer was rescinded. Better that national security suffer than “one of those” should be employed. Whisky Tango Foxtrot Interogative.
What will it take – a mushroom cloud over a US city? A biowar attack? Before people stop putting scare quotes around the “War on Terror”. Shades of the Phoney War.
LikeLike
Zoe,
I probably would be in agreement with you on more things now then previously with regard to certain issues of sexuality. Paraphrasing another writer though, the business of profiling for terrorists and connecting that to transgender issues, makes one shake one’s head in disbelief. If the terrorist threat ever goes away, then “domestic” issues can be higher up on the agenda, as you suggested before.
Unfortunately, I do not think the terrorist situation is going to go away anytime soon. The history of battle relations between Muslims and Christians is 1400 yrs old. It has waxed and waned over that period, but much of the warring in the world during that time has had these two religions and there constituent civilizations going at it. I have had a few college courses on Islam, and I have read the Koran several times as well as other highly regarded Muslim books, and it is a large and strong religion for good reason. Most of the world can, or should, realize by now that it is very inspiring, to say the least, regardless of how wrong they are on this business of murder suicide. It is over simplifying to think going to heaven for 70 virgins is what it is all about – although, I have to admit, that is rather appealing – especially by the grace and consent of God.
In the west, we do not know what to do because the terrorists operate within our liberal laws until the moment they take violent action. I am afraid that it will not change, except with time and escalation to a much bigger conflict. I think Netanyahu of Israel put it very well once saying, “We have the power but not the will, they have the will but not the power.” Anyone can see that they are getting the power though. Pakistan has it already and time is about the only hindrance to others getting it. The future can look rather bleak at times because there is no easy solution at all and history shows that conflict resolution is accomplished by winning the conflict… in war!
Back to something you said, concerning the absurdity of the various marrigae laws in different states and locales, I disagree! The states have rights very much like independent nations do – and I think you would agree! If they are immoral, unjust, etc. then they can be changed, but I do not put prohibitions on Gay marriage in that category. Homosexual “behavior” is not respectable and not a natural right, in my view. Your own personal situation is different, is it not? I can see how you might have more of an affinity with an outcast community – of any kind – but you made it clear above that the Gay Pride people basically would use people like you and then discard them when its time to vote. The hetero community is no doubt ignorant and fearful of your situation, but hopefully they are not trying to exploit you.
LikeLike
G.F. –
I wish the states could agree on a definition of “man” and “woman” though.
In some US states, I could only marry a man as same-sex marriage is illegal. In other states, I could only marry another woman for the same reason. I wish they’d get their stories straight, just so I could use a public lavatory without consulting an almanac to find which one is legal where I’m at!
Especially if same-sex marriage is seen as such a threat to the future existence of western civilisation, as the Catholic Archbishop of Guam wrote recently, fulsomely praising Al Qaeda for their attitude to Gays, while condemning pro forma their methods of dealing with them. I thought he went a bit far calling for a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan until the gay threat was dealt with in the US though.
As for profiling and transgender issues, the 2003 Homeland Security memo alerting everyone to be on the lookout for cross-dressed Terrorists means that my male UK Birth Certificate and female appearance (and anatomy) has caused some issues. It’s still on the Australian Lawbooks that people like me (ie with inconsistent ID documentation) are classed along with wanted criminals and suspected terrorists, and are to be denied passports on the basis of National Security, but this regulation is no longer enforced due to a series of court decisions saying that, basically, it was too silly. Of course it took me 20 months of legal battles, but eventually I got both a passport and an apology. It’s not as if I got wounded in a bomb attack.
This UN midden-heap of Bovine Excrement is not 100% pure, there’s a grain or two of truth in it if you look hard enough. But I have to say, from the vantage point of someone genuinely inconvenienced, it’s close enough to 100% used food as makes no difference.
Sometimes I wonder if common sense is an endangered species. People like you seem all too rare.
LikeLike
Zoe,
Thanks for the kind words, but I think the world’s problems might be easier to fix than to have experienced life in your body. I thought the other day, during this discussion, what it must have been like for you, or anyone in your shoes (in a manner of speaking) to have gone to school, to gym class etc. I wondered how I would have survied my youth, and what would my parents have done if I had been so constructed. I just wondered about it. You’ve lived it and still are. I doubt that there will ever be real consolation for you in this world, ever, or for anyone like you. I wondered what can life mean in this unjust world? You see, I believe God is just. That is absolute. It is not conditional. If you don’t mind, there is a parable of Jesus that came to mind the other day when I was reflecting on all this. It is a story of a certain Lazarus who was a poor and very sickly begger all his life. He often sat by the gate of a certain rich man longing to get the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. In the next life, Lazarus was in heaven, but the rich man found himself in hell. You can look it up for yourself, Lk. 16:19-31, but its application here is that you surely have heaven to go to in the future world almost as a certainty. And the rest of us, predicably, will find ourselves in hell – and we will be able to see you and you will see us! And we will be begging for your help! I know this might be of little comfort in the present, but I think the parable is quite real. It makes sense and is consistent with the ultimate justice that is God’s.
Until Later. Gotta go…
LikeLike
Hi GF!
My own personal religious convictions aren’t Christian, though I do try to follow Matthew 22:39-40, 1 Corinthians 13, and Isaiah 56:3-5. (Which tells me to shut up and not complain BTW)
I can imagine nothing worse than to be in a place of peace, ease and contentment knowing that others I love are suffering, and to be unable to help them. I’m acutely aware of my own failings, I’m a sinner like everyone else. Rather than Justice, I hope for Justice tempered with Mercy. That there is no Hell, just Purgatory, a final place where one can make restitution for one’s wrongdoing to the victims. Even if it takes eons.
It is my dearest wish to be placed there, both to work off my own sentence, but also to help others work off theirs. While a single soul remains, I will not leave.
“While a single person is drowning, how can one leave the pool?”
The Boddhisatva KuanYin, sometime inaccurately described as the Buddhist “goddess” of Compassion (“saint” is closer), supposedly did something similar. Oh yes, she was born looking like a he too. I look on such stories as just that – instructive stories, sometimes based on real people, sometimes not.
Now I’m no saint, but every one of us can sometimes act like one. The only difference is in the degree, and it behooves every one of us to forgive others. You may have to shoot someone to stop them from doing Evil, but not with hate, only sorrow at the necessity. And in the knowledge that you are doing a lesser wrong to prevent a greater one, and must make amends for that. But to not take the responsibility, to let Evil go unchecked, that is a greater wrong still. Just be very sure that your decision is not one motivated by hatred, and realise your own fallibility there. Then do your best. A Merciful God will forgive your errors, if you’re truly doing your best.
Yes, school wasn’t so good. I avoided locker-rooms when there was anyone else there. But I wasn’t blind, nor afflicted with leukemia or quadraplegia. Rather than complain that most others had it easier, I just think it unjust that so many who didn’t deserve it had it harder. So I try to do what I can to make the world a little better, to justify my time here. I have a lot to repay, I’m just as imperfect as anyone else.
Thanks for being so understanding. Such small, everyday acts of Kindness are what Christianity is all about, in my view.
LikeLike
Zoe,
The Lazarus story is better for me than you.
Yes, I am in agreement, Justice and Mercy must be inseparable. In fact, I believe they are. I just don’t know how.
Purgatory sounds like a good medium (Maybe that’s what it is?). I’m not Catholic, so I am not supposed to believe in it, but it definitely has its appeal when the alternative is considered.
Write me direct if you want to continue corresponding. I don’t want to keep using Mr. Pink Eyes site like this. I’ll give Mr. Pink Eyes permission to give you my e-mail address if you want it.
LikeLike
Just google my name for how to contact me. Yes please, I’d like to continue off-line.
LikeLike