Empathy for the Devil

“You don’t know how I feel! NOBODY knows how I feel!”

Remember Rob Petrie’s brother Stacy (played by Dick Van Dyke’s real brother, Jerry) yelling that whenever anyone told him they knew how he felt? Have you ever had to deal with that person for real?

I have, and it gets old real quick. People who feel that way seem to be saying that no matter what you’ve experienced, no matter what you’ve thought, or how much you’ve studied a situation or an issue, you can’t possibly know how they feel unless you’re exactly like them.

Technically, I suppose that’s true. Unless I’m your clone and have experienced every single thing that you have, lived every moment the exact same way you have, I probably can’t fully comprehend how you feel.

That doesn’t mean that I am not sympathetic to your situation, or that I don’t have empathy for what you have been through. It doesn’t mean that I lack the intellectual capacity to comprehend how your experiences might have made you feel, or how they might have colored your perception of the world around you. It also doesn’t mean that I have no right to comment on a situation merely because I am not the same stripe as the people involved. I may not be a child in Africa, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be horrified by the perils that the majority of them face, and that certainly doesn’t mean that I can’t recommend donations to wonderful organizations like Nothing But Nets or Doctors Without Borders because of the aid that they provide to these kids.

I have opinions on racial prejudice and bigotry; are my opinions and thoughts on such subjects invalid because I am a white woman? Am I not allowed to say that I deplore such attitudes without hearing that I have no right to speak of such things because “NOBODY knows how we feel!” Do I not get to call people out on their racist remarks because there is simply no way I can possibly speak with any sort of authority or even voice my condemnation of such behavior because it hasn’t been my experience? If I speak out on such things, am I merely playing lip service to ending prejudice, am I trying to prove my progressive credentials, and am I busily congratulating myself because I voted for Barack Obama, thereby personally solving every prejudice problem in the country?

You know one of the things that has been my experience? It’s that sometimes people have such a Sequoia-sized chip on their shoulder that they can’t recognize when someone is on their side. Maybe it’s easier for them to say that NOBODY knows how they feel! and that no one can possibly relate, that no one can ever truly support them because no one else is like them. Maybe years of being the victim has left them unable to realize that not everyone wants to paint them into that corner...and maybe by their continued obstinacy in refusing to recognize that someone just wanted to be a friend to them, and was willing to discuss such matters—without being unfairly accused as being some sort of racist—they have effectively painted themselves into that very same corner, all on their own. You lost a friendship because of your unreasonable accusations? Congratulations. You’re a victim.

Pandemonium!

Before I get to that, congrats to Jim of Skelligrants, who was the first to comment that it was Rob and Laura Petrie (and Richie) who lived in New Rochelle, New York. Good job, Jim, and the Silver Squirrel is yours. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" remains in my top five TV shows of all time, and I still think it's funny. Didn't you just love it how they were always doing some type of benefit show, or how the gang would come over to Rob and Laura's and do skits, sing songs, etc.? Yeah, it's cheesy...but also kind of cool, in my opinion. People just don't do those sorts of cocktail parties anymore, where the entertainment was the guests. No, I don't want to bring them back, and we won't be having a shindig like that at Nutwood anytime soon. But it's fun to imagine, and as long as there are reruns, I can live vicariously through the Petries!

Well, it's official. The WHO has declared H1N1 a pandemic, the first in 41 years. Seems to me it was a pandemic a while back, especially once it made its way to Australia, but who am I to say? Hey, get it? WHO am I to say? Wow, I am on. a. roll. Anyhoo, this shouldn't change things too much, and I think developed countries have already been operating in pandemic mode. A lot of people are concerned that for developing countries, this could inundate and overwhelm their healthcare systems. I would say that's a legitimate concern, and that's why organizations like WHO are so important.

[Click picture to enlarge] Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's almost kind of exciting to have a pandemic. Simmah down, simmah down now...of course, it's terrible that so many people have gotten ill, and that some have died. That's the tragic side of all infectious diseases. But I'd be lying if I said that it didn't fire up the microbiologist in me. This is the first pandemic that I remember. Fortunately, it has been a relatively mild one in terms of mortality. The concern is that when it comes back in the fall--and that's probably inevitable--it may have mutated into a more virulent form. That's what happened in the 1918 pandemic.

I hope that won't happen, but that's why planning for a pandemic is so necessary. So far, we've been fortunate; however, the rapid spread of this should give fair warning that any sort of communicable disease will be easily and quickly transmitted around the world. In a way, this was a dress rehearsal for possibly a much worse scenario. The closing of schools and other public places may have seemed to be a big to-do about nothing, but that's exactly what will need to happen if and when this reoccurs. This has also pointed out the need for greater surveillance of illnesses in animals. That is more than likely where the next pandemic will originate.

Fascinating stuff. Now is a very good time to be a virologist.

*****

Random blog sighting! While reading an ultra-conservative blog I had never come across before, I saw this phrase: “The story doesn’t jive at all.”

See anything wrong there? They were trying to point out a discrepancy in some news story coming from the administration, trying to show that there were conflicting reports. They kneecapped their own outrage and attempts to ridicule the administration by, instead of pointing out the conflicting report, saying that the story just didn’t swing, Daddy-O. I’ve been chuckling to myself about it all day, and I think I have a new phrase. If something doesn’t move me, make me want to cut a rug and shake my tail feathers, if I just plain don’t dig something, I’m going to say, “Hey man…that doesn’t jive.”

The word is jibe, people.