Humanity---Is it obsolete?
I’m a news junkie. I admit it. I’m sure it’s a result of writing and broadcasting thousands of newscasts in an earlier life. I listen to local and network newscasts and I still read hard-copy newspapers. Now that I’m in the humanity business in my final career, related topics in the news catch my attention. And that was the case over the weekend. Thomas Banchoff declared, in a Washington Post column: Mercy is painfully scarce in our politics today. He gave specific examples out of Washington DC---eliminating life-giving aid programs abroad and threatening to withhold food assistance for more than 40 million Americans. In addition, he contended that the administration’s mass deportation program “has been particularly merciless, criminalizing those who once entered the country illegally but have long been law-abiding and productive members of our communities.” In another powerful column, this one in the Lost Angeles Times, Noubar Afeyan, coined a new but appropriate word...