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You are here: Home / Opinion / Letters to the Editor / LETTER: Is it possible to have genuine empathy?

LETTER: Is it possible to have genuine empathy?

March 19, 2009 By Northwest Asian Weekly

To the Editor:

People laugh much more often than they cry, but crying is more important and more revealing.

What moved me to write a letter to your newspaper, as I read about the experience of Thavisouk “Thavi” Phrasavath in Laos (in issue 12), is because I found I couldn’t bear it, and that I mourned more than what may be considered modest. It was a deep and important question to my life, one that I know is in the heart of many spirits, which is, Is it possible for me to fathom the suffering of people I don’t know and don’t see, without having to experience it myself?

The agony of the question cuts both ways. How can people laboring under injustice say, “I must have faith that others understand. I don’t need to punish them and inflict suffering to make them understand”?

— Mac Crary, Seattle

Respond to this letter HERE.

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Filed Under: Letters to the Editor Tagged With: Laos, Mac Crary, Seattle, letter

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