Friday, March 29, 2024

Compassion should beat in every heart

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I OFFER MY sincerest and deep congratulations to Roy Morris in his column In The Public Interest dated April 22, on the very unfortunate and perplexed incident, now before the court, which resulted in the unfortunate death of Selwyn Knight and the wounding of his son Junior Knight by Constable Everton Gittens.

What excites my deep admiration for the public comment by Morris is his reference to the underlying virtues and vices of all human beings of all races, known to philosophers and humanists from time in-memorial. We are all capable of making the same mistakes and performing the worthiest of feats, facing the same challenges and opportunities in the human condition.

Christian philosophers have referred to this human commonality thus:

(a) We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

(b) We are all men of sorrow. and acquainted with grief

(c) King David, in severe anguish, confessed to God: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me!”

And, there, David spoke for all human beings. As far back as ancient Roman times, Publius Terentius Afer (190-159 BC), a Roman citizen though a former African slave of Publius, was writing in Latin, with authority: “I am a man, and therefore nothing in the human condition can be foreign to me.”

Morris is right. Compassion must always beat in the human breast at the witnessing of the misfortunes and sorrows of other humans. He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. We must all share it, for at some time we shall all need it, simply because we are humans. Who knows who holds tomorrow?

I salute you, sir, for you are a scholar and a gentleman. Go up to Ramoth Gilead and conquer.

But never fail to call upon the name of the Lord in the good times, and in the bad.

– WALDO E. WALDRON-RAMSAY 

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