http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/june/gates-commencement-remarks-061514.html
You don’t even have to leave your computer to see that people have no idea what poverty and suffering looks like outside of our borders.
Go to a liberal new source like: reddit, nytimes, npr, etc.. and read the comment section of stories about the new influx of illegal minors crossing the border.
You will see that the top comments are something like “these people are terrible parents”.
That kind of sentiment shows a complete lack of understanding about the degree of suffering people are facing.
The desperation that forces parents to send their children to make a perilous trek across the desert should not be perceived as bad parenting, but as a horrific reminder that those people’s normal lives are WORSE.
Like Melinda Gates said, “there is no difference at all in what we want for our children”.
I did not arrive at this understanding because I possess some sort of superior capacity for empathy. In fact, I am usually chided for lacking empathy.
The only reason I understand this dilemma so well is because I know many Vietnamese parents who’ve made the same choices.
They put their entire family, fortunes, hopes and dreams in small boats and headed out to sea risking starvation, drowning, and piracy. But at that time, it was the “better” alternative.