There's a wacked out reward system going on in world culture these days and the concept of responsibility and/or repercussions is as obtuse as the Octomom getting a reality TV show.
A cop, who may or may not be racist, arrests America's foremost African American scholar, who may or may not have an attitude, for the obvious reason that his authority was challenged, his superiority impugned. Instead of him getting some counseling to help him deal with his obvious super-badge complex he gets invited to the White House for a beer and then gets a standing ovation at a police conference in Long Beach, CA.
An entertainer who reaches millions via a comedy and parody network masquerading as a news network (read Fox) creates a nickname for a doctor he thinks is cute and funny, Tiller the Baby Killer, and that doctor, Dr. Tiller, ends up dead at the hands of an American grown terrorist. That entertainer is allowed to stay on the air, the network allowed to continue to pay him huge amounts, zero repercussions, no show cancellation, no public shunning.
A Vice President commits and admits to war crimes on national television and he is rewarded with a large book deal and rises to be the one of leading spokespersons for his party of war criminal supporters.
A woman has a litter of children putting them, and herself, in danger and creating a living situation destined to be detrimental to the well being of her brood, and she gets instant fame and a reality TV show.
Another couple that had a litter of children does a show that possibly helps deconstruct their failing marriage, it implodes putting their family and their brood at risk, and instead of privacy, solace, instead of trying to save their most sacred of institutions, the institution so fragile it must be protected from evil people who may want to join in of the same gender, they opt for full disclosure in front of cameras. Instead of pity or even condemnation, they get superstardom, illicit affairs at high priced resorts and on yachts in the warm island nations and perhaps another series.
The worse a celebrity behaves, the better his or her press and ultimately a revival of their usually sagging careers.
An administration tries to terrorize a nation by altering alerts and the person that knows remains quiet until paid to tell it in a book and gets press time instead of prosecution for duplicity.
A subhuman electrocutes intelligent, caring creatures, has the teeth removed from the females so they can't fight while being raped tied to a table named for that very act, smashes them against concrete if they displease him, spends a short time in jail, pays a small fine and is back in his chosen profession, making large sums and being supported by many fans.
An animal kills 270 people on a plane and he gets released on compassionate grounds, when it is clear he showed none to his victims or their families and is undeserving of any himself.
A president invades a sovereign nation under false pretences, removes its dictator but offers no real plan for reconstruction or renewal for its people, allows torture, attacks the Constitution and the people it governs with illegal invasions at home and retires in style and people line up to hear him speak. Compare that president to Hitler and get denounced by both sides of the political spectrum; even though in retrospect that president may, in fact, have warranted it more. Then have many of those same people doing the denouncing turn around and compare another president to Hitler themselves, complete with graphics, wave swastikas, derail an important debate and they get rewarded through success and media credibility instead of denounced as ill-informed mouthpieces of a media conglomerate's propagandist campaign.
Bring guns to political rallies and be hailed as freedom advocates instead of dangerous lunatics on the fringe.
I understand to forgive is divine, but this is really taking things way too far. Forgiveness is not something every person who offends deserves and the shift of somehow rewarding bad behavior with credibility, fame or riches has eclipsed any and all reason. In other words, it appears the lunatics really are running the asylum.
And compassion, which is defined by Webster's as "sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortunes of others..." can be shown, but is it compulsory that it be unilateral?
The Scotts felt it was compassionate to release a man in jail for killing hundreds of others. We've released criminals for these reasons, not ones such as these, but still, those convicted of crimes, in some cases, even violent ones.
But my father used to say, you made your bed, now lay in it.
When you kill, if you get sick you're going to die in jail (unless there's the death penalty which makes that a moot point). You'll have health care, probably better than many Americans, but you're not getting out. Sorry. The compassionate thing to do would, of course, offer euthanasia, but we won't be that compassionate even to our terminally ill, no, for the state or country to approve killing you compassionately you have to kill someone, terminal illness? Suffer. I digress. So short of euthanasia, basic medical care, no suffering, die in prison.
We need to adjust our focus on what exactly compassion, forgiveness and the rewarding of truly offending actions means to us as a people. Because many people are getting tired of doing the "right" thing and having their lives slip lower and lower, having their deeds unseen, their ideals unheard.
In fact, many I know in this country, in my country, in the United States are beginning to shake their heads in utter disbelief, not recognizing the country, or the world, in front of them.
Commit a crime, you are responsible for what happens to you. Act superior in a badge, you are responsible what happens to you. Betray your country, you are responsible what happens to you. The problem is nothing really happens to you, or, in most cases, good things happen to you. So why behave?
Compassion is not rewarding those who betray, who kill, who offend in horrendous or destructive ways. Forgiveness is not empowering, elevating or rewarding those who behave despicably. Humanity is not granting the wishes of someone who, through deeds and actions, has proven to be some how subhuman.
We need a common sense reboot in this world, and particularly in this nation. A Libyan getting a hero's welcome for killing is just another stab at America's comatose sense of outrage. That outrage is a sleeping giant and it's time to awaken it. Not a violent outrage. A human outrage. A rebuking of the absurd, a return to the bottom line and a strong dose of common sense.
What the Scot's did is an outrage. Sorry. It is. Obama inviting this moron to the White House while millions of Americans that do good for our country every day will never meet him is an outrage. Cheney being allowed to speak in print instead of from a cell is an outrage. Bush not at the Hague on trial is an outrage. Rewarding immature and opportunistic individuals who show no regard for their own family is an outrage. An entertainment channel inciting sedition in order to derail a chance for 50 million Americans to be able to access healthcare is an outrage.
The fact that not only do we do nothing about these outrages and countless others is, in fact, outrageous.