Human kindness not in short supply

YOUR LETTERS

Long ago, Shakespeare penned “The quality of mercy is not strained/ It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.”

This apparently is not the viewpoint of editor Neil Godbout, who seems to believe that human kindness is in very short supply and that we are misspending that limited resource on non-humans (“Be kind to more than animals” Citizen, March 16).

From somewhere – and I don’t think it’s reality – he infers from the understandably strong and voluminous emotional reaction to stories of animal abuse, that we care far less about needy humans.

To the contrary, those who care deeply about non-humans also tend to be first in line when it comes to assisting the homeless or other people who are having hard times. Generosity in the best of us is not determined by where the victims are in the animal kingdom.

I recall that this same dismal zero-sum worldview got rolled out last year by the vocal minority opposing acceptance of more Syrian refugees. “We should take care of our own” opined some, including several of The Citizen’s tireless and tedious Christian right letter-writers.

The fact is, that as a society and as individuals we have the resources, both emotional and financial, to care about and care for those who suffer, whatever the species.

As a society we spend huge amounts of money on multibillion dollar aircraft or needless and ecologically destructive dams; or as individuals on replacing our outmoded 48-inch TV with the latest 80-inch screen.

Apparently self-care is never short-changed. We do need to scrimp on either animal wellbeing or on needy people.

As for our editor, if I were you, Neil, I’d have that heart checked. It sounds like you may be suffering from the Grinchian cardiopathic condition of having one that is at least two sizes too small. Norman Dale Prince George