If you want others to be happy,
practice compassion
If you want to be happy,
practice compassion.
-The Dalai Lama

Compassion is in short supply in some places,
and I’m not sure why.

It’s true that the Judeo-Christian ethic uses
the very misunderstood “an eye for an eye”
as a reason to not feel compassion.

Reasonable people think this is simply
a way to express the idea that punishment should
fit the crime and the circumstances.
In other words: not be too harsh or too lenient.

It doesn’t mean a life for a life
or anything like that.

Let us take Casey Anthony, for example.
I’m only using her because I don’t
want to use some of the more personal
examples I could use.

I take the position that Ms. Anthony
is not a sane person, even if she was
deemed able to stand trial.
No sane person would kill her child
and I do believe she killed her daughter.

However, I do not think she should be put to death.
I do not think she should have been acquitted.