This Is Why We Must Put People With Empathy In Positions of Power

[crispini]

People who have the power to empathize with strangers will move heaven and earth to do what they can when they see suffering. They will work all night and day, they will cut red tape, they will drop everything else and stay up all night and work hard and invent solutions to problems and forget how it "should" be done and JUST DO IT because PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING and THAT'S MORE IMPORTANT than ANYTHING ELSE.

People who don't have empathy allow RED TAPE and BULLSHIT to get in the way.

"New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1749337

Why didn't the paperwork get done sooner, and for that matter, why didn't Richardson just fucking SEND THEM IMMEDIATELY?

[eallen]

1. Empathy AND competence. The failure wasn't because Bush didn't care...

But because his administration has made a policy of appointing people with no relevant expertise, to positions where expertise is required. Bush has substituted ideology and political connection for competence.

[katinmn]

3. Right on the button, eallen.

:hi:

[OneBlueSky]

2. which is precisely why I would support someone like Robert Redford . . .

for President . . . he may not have experience in government, but his heart is large and in the right place, and he's intelligent enough to hire people who are actually qualified for the posts they'd fill -- unlike the current administration . . .

others on my list include Bobby Kennedy, Gary Hart, and Bill Moyers . . . if we can't get any of these people, what we need to look for is someone LIKE these people . . .