"There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I
think we should talk more about our empathy deficit — the ability to
put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those
who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the laid-off
steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.
"As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become
harder, not easier. There’s no community service requirement in the
real world; no one forcing you to care. You’ll be free to live in
neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your
kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what’s going on in
your own little circle.
"Not only that — we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A
culture that too often tells us our principal goal in life is to be
rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those
in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.
"They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and
beg for food got there because they’re all lazy or weak of spirit. That
the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools can’t
learn and won’t learn and so we should just give up on them entirely.
That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes
half a world away are somebody else’s problem to take care of.
"I hope you don’t listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and
not contract, your ambit of concern. Not because you have an obligation
to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation.
Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where
you are, although you do have that debt.
"It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our
individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s
only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself
that you will realize your true potential — and become full-grown."
From a commencement speech at Northwestern University, 2006
http://www.northwestern.edu/observer/issues/2006/06/22/obama.html
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