Must we be witnesses to insanity when help is refused? Or are we required to act?

[myrgthful]

Citing the fact that the Myanmar regime is, in active and stubborn negligence, allowing its citizens to starve, contract diseases and fall into lawlessness, Time magazine has come up with a radical proposal:

Comments

[myrgthful]

Please forgive my rambling response... sleep deprivation and such. I was attempting to communicate several comparative situations, and the feelings which each might incite in myself. (or yourself)

I figure that you are probably more pacifistic than myself. Or I am more... what? Militant?

I made the observation just yesterday that I am much less hot-headed than I was, ten years ago. I have learned more the value of keeping silent in some situations. Of letting people be how they are. Do how they will. A realization that I cannot affect or improve all situations, partly. And that, sometimes, just making the attempt to do so, can make things worse.

But I ask myself about so many situations... what would have happened in WW2 with the Jews, if no one had helped? What would have become of England (or all of Europe... or the world) if America had not entered the war as belatedly as it did? What would have happened if the Allies had more resolutely protected Poland from the beginning?

The moral courage to act is something which I have attempted to cultivate in myself, after being inspired by so many heroes of history, from books and from movies. Because, like I said, I do not want to be held responsible for doing nothing. By myself, my peers, or my God.

My own sense of utter helplessness at some horrible car accidents I witnessed is what spurred me on to study emergency medicine, to participate in some search and rescue, and to eventually become a nurse.

I also lived my life, moving from place to place every few years. I was often the new kid on the block. I encountered many bullies. I ended up in confrontational situations. My shame at my failure to help myself, or help others, further strengthened my desire to gain certain attributes which would allow me to direct bad situations towards a possibly better end. By argument, or by force.

I feel the conviction that the world is a very unjust and unforgiving place. It's like being attacked by a mugger... I feel that I am in a position to dispense mercy if I first defeat my assailant. I have no such expectation from my attacker.

You're right in implying that there is a certain, potentially fallacious (even dangerous) logic to this... that some acts in the name of "the greater good" can often be to the detriment of all. But I believe the difference lies in one's intent, and one's commitment to certain principles. Compassion, before pride. Determination, before spite. Love, before hate.

I realize we can't save everyone and we can't fix all the world's ills. But I would feel like my life lacked meaning, if I couldn't make a difference.

[gigiss]

You overlook the fact that it is all about perceptions. You perceive the U.S. as The Benevolent Nation (which we are, make no mistake about it). Others, however, have as little confidence in our motives as we would in the motives of North Korea or Iran.

But ultimately, despite the sensitivity of these perceptions, we still have to decide what is the Right Thing To Do. I happen to agree with the rage that you feel for governments who are oppressing their own citizens. I just wish that there was a way to find a solution that did not involve our citizens dressed in camo and flak jackets and worrying about IEDs.

And ultimately, I am sobered by the realization that I am not going to be the one who will be in the line of fire should we get to that point. My boys will be the ones shouldering that burden, and while it would make me proud to know that they are defending the rights of humanity, I am not quite sure that I am ready to expose them to the possibility of that kind of sacrifice yet. Selfish of me? Maybe, but that is how I feel right now.

[myrgthful]

I see what you mean. I worry about either of my daughters wanting to enlist in the military, at some point in the future, too. But I would be a hypocrite to try to resist the idea.

And all of our soldiers are volunteers. They know - or should know - what they are getting themselves into.

I also feel that just being a missionary in a foreign country these days presents its own challenges and dangers. Sister Barbara Barrington Jones' daughter had to return early from a dangerous situation in Central America, around '92, when I lived in your stake.

Worse, I worry about what living in "the last days" portends for them. In Israel, surrounded by enemies, the men AND women both serve in the military, and take home skills like using a gas mask, firing a rifle, and emergency field-medicine. Stuff like that. Will it be the same for us when "the Constitution hangs by a thread" and some of the worst parts of prophecy begin to occur?

It's not that I am crazy about the idea of going to war, or drawing the anger of terrorists. (In truth, I believe they would hate us even if we weren't in Iraq, simply because we are "infidels" to them, and we are powerful... and I'd rather they deploy IEDs in a foreign territory, than against us in American Suburbia) It is that I believe that it is our role to be prepared for the utmost worst. And to be willing to face whatever adversities which come, like our Pioneer ancestors before us.

Returning from my tangent... maybe we ought to hope that people will be willing and able to act for their own good, and that we can try to just drop supplies in to them. It just seems that most people are not able to or willing to defend themselves.