View From Here – On Empathy

By David Mark Greaves
This Trump Administration is run by those who are the polar opposite of the group of volunteers helping the homeless that my son introduced me to on a visit to Phoenix, Arizona, last weekend.

CNN reported on March 3 that Elon Musk said in an interview, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit. “There, they’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. Empathy, he said, has been “weaponized.”

An organization David is a part of, Heaven’s Healing Hands, a veteran-centered, volunteer group, was holding its every fourth Saturday distribution of clothes, products, and respect to those who don’t have an address.

The distribution was held at St. Vincent de Paul facility in a basketball space donated by Harlem Globetrotter legend Meadowlark Lemon.

Here, I met people, Black, White, and Hispanic, all regularly giving their time because of the quality of empathy and the understanding of the pain of people less fortunate and whose paycheck-to-paycheck lives fell apart and left them battered.

There was Chris, a veteran and Trump supporter, and Katherine, head of the Apache helicopter division at Boeing. I met Tim, a former Navy Seal Master Chief, and a note to SECDEF: do not call him a DEI hire to his face. I met Lana, who gave 30 haircuts and beard trims in the 2-hour session. All united by empathy.

The large space came together with tables and wares arranged so quickly and efficiently that I realized this was military precision in action.

I was assigned behind the Bomba tee shirts and underwear, and I saw that the commercials were real. These are the most requested items. The Bomba socks were on the other side of the very popular mats woven from repurposed plastic garbage bags by senior citizens who wanted to help but couldn’t be there.

Co-founders Guy and Joanne Penns (heavenshealinghandsphx.org) are adamant that the presentation of the offerings be neat and respectful for the people who were living on the street and as Joanne says, “Who may just want you to look them in the eye and see and speak to them.”

These were volunteers, like many here in Brooklyn and across the country, whose only concern was in helping those whose lives had been upended.
As we left the distribution, we saw scattered people along the fence line of the streets set up on either side of the road. I thought there were many, but David said it was like a ghost town compared to what it usually was, and his voice broke when he asked, “Where did they all go?”

Elon Musk and Donald Trump know nothing about the kind of humanity held in the hearts and minds of volunteers everywhere. The thought of doing something for someone else because they are hurting and expect nothing in return is absolutely foreign to them.

Not caring about the result of their actions, the pain they will cause in Medicare and Social Security cuts, is what will bring them down starting with the midterms.
Trump sees them coming and it’s why he’s now attempting to raise the bar to vote in federal elections.
A new Executive Order requires a federal ID for federal elections and requires all ballots to be received by Election Day. However, elections are a State responsibility and this Order will be immediately challenged.

What it does highlight, is how the Trump Administration and its minions are loading the dice, rigging the table, and putting in the fix. We must remember that these men behave with a mobster’s disdain for the law.

And then they think they’ve got Musk’s money as a shield and hammer. But his money, like his cars, may become toxic and the kiss of death to candidates who receive it. Hopefully, that will be proven in the April 1st Wisconsin race for the State Supreme Court. Then we’ll see what his more than $14 million has bought, that April Fool’s Day.

Mediocrity Runs Amok in Washington
I am surprised at the harsh language being used by economists to describe Donald Trump’s tariff plans and, therefore, the man in ways many thought were obvious from the start. “Dumb,” “Dumbest,” “Stupid,” “Insane,” and “Crazy” are some of the adjectives now being used by elite classes to describe the President of the United States. They join a list of others, such as, “Evil,” “Mobster,” “Sexually Abusive,” “Racist,” “Misogynist,” “Felon,” and even traitorous for a person who switches sides in a war and obscene for holding food from the starving and medicine from the sick.

Now, thanks to the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the words being added are “Incompetent,” “Irresponsible,” “Reckless,” “Reprehensible,” “Astonishing” (not in a good way), and “Criminal,” to describe the revelation that a cabinet-level meeting on an imminent attack was held on a commercial channel rather than in a secured environment.
And it’s only been three months. What will they be called by summer?