Empathy Gap?
March 13th, 2009 | Published in Blog | 2 Comments
This week, I ran across an excellent photo essay on MSNBC’s website. Justin Sullivan took a series of deeply moving photographs of the men and women who have moved into a tent city on the edge of the American River in Sacramento. At the time Sullivan’s photos were taken, some 1200 people were living in tents there. MSNBC reported that about 50 people were joining them each day.
What is so remarkable about about these photos is not that they document people living just over the edge of homlessness (which they eloquently do), but that they do so with nearly perfect mirroring of the images that Dorothea Lange took on the banks of the same river in 1936.
Tent cities along Sacramento's American River, 2009 and 1936.
The New York Times ran a story this week about the demise of conspicuous consumption, or, in the words of the Times headline writer: “Extravagance Has Its Limits as Belt-Tightening Trickles Up.” One wonders in these times, whether the Empathy Gap J.D. Trout writes of will widen or narrow? As more and more of us feel the pinch and the pain of economic hard times, will our hearts understand more or less fully the trials of living in poverty?
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March 18th, 2009 at 4:44 pm (#)
Sean, This is incredible. I”m in the middle of preparing a class about the FSA photos for an 11th grade English class as part of their Grapes of Wrath study and thought to include the NYT page one photo last week of the 9 year old girl lying on a bed in a motel room, her new home after parents lost their jobs. But this is so striking! Big shifts underway…
March 27th, 2009 at 10:56 am (#)
Maria,
I’m an avid listener for about 3 years now. Each Sunday here at 6 P.M. in
Las Vegas, Nv. I get in my car for the 30 minute drive home from work, and
you are always tuned in. I enjoy the program immensely whether you’re
talking about immigration or music and anything in between. I find your
show both entertaining and informative.
Your segment on “Empathy” I found particularly good as I related to that.
My interest in the Latino community started many years ago while on the
beach in “Acapulco” while listening to my portable cassette playing the
strains of “gringo” Linda Rondstat’s then new album “Canciones De Mi Padre”.
The local merchants on the beach informed me that she was a “gringo” and
that I should listen to Lola Beltran.
Since then, I’ve visited Mexico many times and have listened to the magic of
Miss Beltran.
“Empathy” struck me because you mentioned the car accident and the lesson
you taught your son. And yes, America is the land of immigrants. The
current situation with Latinos, particularly from Mexico, is no different
than that of my great grandparents from Ireland, more than a hundred years
ago in time. They came to America to survive and succeed, and faced many of
the same problems new immigrants face, whether documented or not.
Last year, before the elections, I drove by a nursery where many Latinos
line up every morning hoping that someone will hire them for a days work.
(I’ve hired them myself to work at my home). On this day there were many
protesters with posters crying for immigrant reform and demanding that no
one hire the day laborers. I thought, in disbelief, how cruel these people
were. Do I ever see “them”, if unemployed, standing on the street corners
begging for work to support their families. Never. They won’t work for
$10.00 per hour to do landscaping work, or construction, in 115 degree heat.
Yet, those trying to make a better life for their families will do so for 10
hours a day, if necessary!
And it’s all so simple for these so-called protesters . they lack Empathy,
and have forgotten their roots or are ignorant of them.
Keep us the good work!
Best,
John
Las Vegas, Nv.
P.S. For a treat, go to You Tube and do a search on Lola Beltran Linda
Rondstat and you’ll find a link to a duet they did of “Hay Unos Ojos” .
magic!