There are moments when I feel that I have awakened on the wrong planet. Some of these moments came this past week.
A Tennessee volunteer fire department watches a man's house burn down with his pets inside. They don't put out his fire because he hasn't paid the $75 fee for the service. What would they do if a human were burning to death?
A college student discovers his roommate in the midst of a homosexual tryst in the next room. He secretly films the incident and streams it live onto the Internet. His roommate kills himself two days later. These two happenings have something in common _ there is no compassion in them. First, a volunteer fire brigade that demands a fee is not "volunteer."
The second incident is an expression of something much more insidious _ the phenomenon of what I call the "contemptible image."
I worked in front of cameras for 45 years in New York. Depending upon how it is used, the image in the viewfinder can be turned into a saint or a mere thing -- something devoid of dignity and deserving of contempt. It's a technique that is used all the time in the heat of political campaigns with the photos of opposing candidates. This is the unfortunate age of "Humiliation Equals Humor." There are misguided writers among us who feel that there is nothing more screamingly funny than emotionally undressing someone and then sneering at him or her. They have reduced persons with hopes and fears and feelings to simple images -- with whom they have no human connection. This has moved into our TV entertainment as well. Years ago, while watching "24," I realized I was watching a torture scene and was expected to be entertained by it. I turned the show off, and never watched it again. Currently, if I wish to, I can be "entertained" by watching a show, "Dexter," about a serial killer who kills criminals on camera and dismembers them. I choose not to, because I will not debauch my spirit by doing so.
We cannot rationally hold all Tennesseeans accountable for the actions of a few mouth-breathing troglodytes. Nor can we imagine that others of us might indulge in the savage invasiveness that the college student engaged in. Happily, I think the rest of us still outnumber these room-temperature IQs. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is worthwhile remembering; and when we're about to execute a decision, we might ask ourselves: "Does this come from compassion?"
John Randolph Jones is a semiretired actor who sings with the Catskill Choral Society.
Columns
Lamenting the death of compassion
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
Ask any hospital administrators if they've ever heard of a closed hospital in New York state that has ever been re-opened. They will say, "Impossible." In a half century of going through records you can't find any.
Continued ... - Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
- Opera great's visit still a thrilling memory
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Cary Brunswick
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We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
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We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
Continued ... - Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
- Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
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- Rick Brockway
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
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Using time off in the worst way possible
"You don't mean it," I pleaded. "You simply can't mean it!"
Continued ... - Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
- Column on guns led to a barrage of (mostly) jeers
- No one is coming to take your guns
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Using time off in the worst way possible
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
