High and mighty and pretty self-righteous. But it’s my blog, so I get to be that way.

All week I’ve been watching the commentary on facebook – my friends’ statuses are a pretty good cross-section of general opinion since people from various points in my life have all developed in different directions over time. Ignoring the fact that anyone who uses facebook inherently represents a certain level of privilege, it’s interesting to see what people think about the crisis in Hati and the democratic party loss in MA yesterday.

The thing that struck me the most was the sheer volume of selfish, shortsighted, greedy comments.

Now, I realize I was raised in a virtually socialist household. My mother is English, both of my parents are highly educated, and have spent their lives educating others. They donate to charities, help individuals when they can, and are some of the kindest people you could hope to come across. My biases are pretty plain, and it’s no mystery where my attitudes come from.

That being said, I find it simply unbelievable how many people feel justified in saying things like “Don’t give the Haitians free shit!”, “So sick of handouts to people who don’t contribute to our country!”, etc. I am willing to bet 100% of them would expect some help if a flood washed away their house, if the earth cracked open and sucked their life in, if winds came through and knocked over every solid foundation, if a fire toasted the roof over their heads and the bed they sleep in. It’s easy to sit back and be judgmental when you’ve never encountered any hardship and the worst crisis you face is not being able to afford a vacation this year. The sheer disgusting selfishness of those attitudes makes me sick to my stomach.

I don’t have a solution to the world’s problems and I don’t pretend to know everyone’s circumstances. My expectation is not that people give until they deprive themselves or their families and I think people have a reasonable expectation to enjoy the things and money that they have worked hard for. But for the love of pete, try not to be a complete selfish jackass who can’t think past the gimmie gimmie attitude to understand that not everyone is like you. Not everyone has a choice, and not everyone has the chances you’ve had. Try to muster just the tiniest amount of sympathy for someone other than yourself. Please.