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To: Sopater
OK, then why don't you tell me what I think I know that's wrong and then proceed to tell me the "real" answer...

LOL - Why be so cagey about a position you state you "absolutely LOVE"? It doesn't sound like you have any waffling over what you mean. So why not just say it?

Because it's not like it's mysterious, you know. There are only two choices - her lack of family help counts against her, or it counts against her family. Now why would you "absolutely LOVE" such a question? Because you presume you know the answer, of course. And, as people rarely presume that a single person has been driven to the street by an entire family being wrong, it's obvious that that is probably what you "absolutely LOVE" about the question - that it implies she wasn't as innocent as the article makes her out to be.

But you know all of this, of course. That's why it stung you so hard when I told you not to presume - because you did presume. And you don't have enough information to presume.

The fact is that it takes a great deal of courage to stand up to a dysfunctional family, and families are very often dysfunctional to the extremes of actual abuse - whether over drug use, religious abuse, money abuse, interpersonal relationship abuse, or whatever. And typically, families gang up against whistleblowers - or even those who dare to challenge the consensus.

On the other hand, families also lose members to individual bad choices, it's true. But ask yourself - what is more likely - that a truly loving and supportive family will lose a member who cries abuse, or that an abusive family in denial will lose a amember that cries abuse? You see, the quick presumption doesn't really hold up to examination. because a family is a very powerful thing, and so a truly loving family is also a very loving thing. If most families were as truly loving as they claim to be, far less people would flee them and end up in drugs,or crime, or on the street. In fact, that's the very purpose of a loving family - to have enough strength to help their members avoid such fates.

So I say, don't presume. This woman may well have died facing the same indifference to her suffering and real danger to her life, as she did from a family that she fled from in the first place. Perhaps not, it's true - but there is certainly a very strong argument to be made on her behalf, lacking any further information about her.

In any event, she's in a better place now, no matter how horribly she had to leave here.

40 posted on 03/30/2012 3:19:19 PM PDT by Talisker (He who commands, must obey.)
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To: Talisker
...it's obvious that that is probably what you "absolutely LOVE" about the question - that it implies she wasn't as innocent as the article makes her out to be.

didn't mean to be cagey, I was just curious what you thought I loved about the question. It's been my experience that when someone proceeds to tell me that they know what I think and that I'm wrong, they're usually way off base.

Anyway, what I absolutely loved about the question was the fact that everyone seems to be affraid to ask it. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the individual, their family, and the church, to take care of their own. The church and the family have given that responsibility to the state who has been more than happy to take it.

Dysfunctional or not, families have a responsibility to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Now if a person is perfectly capable of caring for themself, they don't usually wind up homeless, unless it's by choice. Either way, its not MY responsibility to care for them, unless I choose to.

I don't know what this poor woman's issues were that had her living on the street, but her family didn't seem to show up until it was too late.
42 posted on 03/30/2012 3:53:56 PM PDT by Sopater (...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. - 2 COR 3:17b)
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