thoughts on the news of the day: compassion

hmmm…..

                The news today is that nursing homes in California are now taking convicted felons as residents.  I guess in a way that makes sense.  If a prisoner is incapacitated and the prison can’t handle his or her care, then why wouldn’t it be prudent to place them in a facility designed to give that care?

                Well, there are a few problems with that scenario.  First of all, how incapacitated are they really?  Are they still able to do physical harm to someone else?  Are they still able to plot and plan with criminals on the outside to do damage to others?  And what about the other residences of the facility, do they have a right to know that convicted felons live in the next room?

                I am reading a book right now that focuses on the aging population.  Most folks who live in nursing homes are 65+  so challenges and problems with care of the elderly is a non-trivial issue.  Did you know that we spend about as much on Medicare each year as we do at Wal-Mart?  I can’t wrap my head around either of those figures, but they are enormous.   So, we can’t pretend that housing criminals in the same place we care for the aged is not important because it is.

                Which brings me to this point:  In the end, we all need compassion.  Whether we are being punished for our sins, punished for our age, or punished for something else, we deserve the same compassion that Jesus gave to criminals, prostitutes, and tax collectors.  We are created with the gift of compassion, and it is criminal not to use it.

                hmmm…..

thoughts on the news of the day: words

hmmm…..

                So, my daughter gave me a kindle fire for Christmas.  I really wanted one and was excited when I opened the box.  I brought it with me to Austin and to seminary … and I hate to admit it, but the technology eluded me.  Well…. I had also just acquired a new hp computer and  was working on getting it going.  And at my class at seminary, the library was my first source for books and articles. 

                So there I was last night.  I decided that it was THE night I was going to master this new toy and finally download some books on it.  Thanks to my portable WiFi device I got on amazon and found a book I needed for my class.  I downloaded it and guess what?  There it was!!! A font that was large enough to read and a lighted page so I could read in bed instead of having to squint because of poor lighting in my bedroom.  On top of that, I could still highlight sentences and take notes.

                OK, so what is unusual about the last two paragraphs?  On the one hand, not much; in a way, kinda deadly dull.  But as I began to write, it occurred to me, if this blog (there I go again) was catapulted back even ten years, the reader would have no idea what I was talking about.  Our vocabulary has changed and it is changing more and more each day.  Guess my only hope of keeping up is to make sure my New Oxford American Dictionary is close at hand …. The one on my kindle ….  After all, the printed one in my bookcase is dismally out of date.

                hmmm…..