Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, has come out in favor of gay marriage because his son is gay. Some people were less than impressed with the fact that apparently empathy starts and stops at the front door of their own house. Others cut him a little more slack. I have to admit feeling more of the former at first, but I realize that yes, change is incremental and a lot of times it isn’t until you experience it yourself that you realize things aren’t perfect.
All the same, progress shouldn’t rely on wishing evil upon others so they get some empathy. I’m glad that so many vehement opponents of Obamacare do not have chronic pre-existing conditions and have not been denied health insurance, and I hope they don’t have to go through that. But is it too much to ask to imagine what it is like for those families that are in that position, and maybe, just maybe, understand that this is the only progress that has existed on this issue for a long time? I’m not even going to get into the empathy for people who have been out of work for long periods of time due to no fault of their own other than living in a depressed economy: the average net worth of our members of Congress indicate that long-term unemployment is not something they have ever had to deal with.
I was raised to think about others and put myself in their shoes. I try to do so, although nobody is perfect. That means that even though I don’t have many issues that face people today, due to a combination of luck and good decisions, I understand that it can still go very differently for me due to things I can’t control. Hopefully, I don’t have to experience every different life possibility to understand how one might get there and how they could feel about it.