When you make fun of a handicapped person – you lack empathy.
When you call someone a fag, Dyke, fairy, homo, bull dagger, punk, etc. You lack empathy.
When you call someone a n****r, spic, wop, coon ass, camel jockey, muzzy, white bread – you lack class and empathy.
When you want someone off welfare or think people should be cut off of social security or Medicare because You’ve decided they don’t need it. – you lack empathy.
When you can hurt someone because your God said it was okay, or your Holy Book said it was okay – you don’t lack religion, you lack empathy
When you go online and are shitty to people in the comment section and purposefully say the meanest thing you can think of – YOU lack empathy.
When you think it’s okay to starve an artist because YOU think they make too much and have to turn to another source for income because ‘the industry’ is bleeding them – You lack empathy.
When you can’t have an adult conversation without screaming – you lack empathy.
When you bring Chicago violence up to make a point but haven’t donated money to organizations IN Chicago to help end the violence – you lack a conscience and you lack empathy.
When you vote for someone who could potentially cause damage to a group of under represented people and get confused about why they’re mad at you – well, your brain broke, you’re dense, and you lack empathy.
Now – take that word Empathy and replace it with ‘humanity’.
And while we’re on that subject – you do realize the arts are ALSO called, ‘The humanities’, right? So every time I see a comment about ‘shut up and sing, dance, write. No one cares what you think’ or ‘author behaving bad’ or ‘who do they think they are’ or any variation of that…I hear, ‘Stop making me question myself. My ignorance feels too good, I’m too comfortable in my world view. Let me shut my conscience up by shutting you down.’
Not my circus. Not my monkeys. As an artist it’s MY JOB to bring things to your attention.
I will stand for ‘We the people’ when it ceases to mean ‘Me, the asshole.’