A conversation about Compassion
Maureen at Red Rocks with her uncle Greg
I am so fortunate to be part of the amazing Leif Family and have so many extended Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Our Uncle Greg is a Catholic Priest in Minnesota. Our daughters called him Uncle God growing up which thankfully, he found to be comical! I have gotten to go on many fun hiking adventures with Uncle Greg over the years and we have the most amazing in-depth conversations about the world, politics, life, and recently we have talked a lot about compassion and empathy. He has a saying that “might is right” and in this episode we get a chance to have him talk about what that means and what empathy is what compassion is. Fr. Greg Leif spent time in the region near Palestine and was able to talk to people with lived experiences there and he has been passionate about how we need to have compassion for all humans. He and I have spent a great deal of time talking about the recent war and why the story line that some of us grew up hearing isn’t necessarily the right one and how we need to continue to grow in our learning of the situation and having compassion for others.
This is a conversation about how to continue to grow as people and how we can always bring compassion to others. We talk about the examples through Black Lives Matter and Palestine but it’s really a story for living with a true purpose to care for others, to continue to explore the realities of what we hear on our chosen new outlets, to continue to listen to one another and stay engaged. The biggest take away for me personally is that we can not remain indifferent to injustice, we must all stand up for the vulnerable. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I loved having it! If you are interested in hearing more about Fr. Greg’s experience in the middle east- he has written some of his thoughts below:
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“Some have asked me lately, what all the trouble in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Palestine is all about? Many years ago, I spent 3- and one-half months in a place just between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. During that time, I met people from Bet Jallah, Bethlehem, and Bet Sahour, as well as many from Jerusalem. These were descendants from the first people to follow Christ more than 2,000 years ago. Their families have lives in Palestine for thousands of years.
In the early 1900’s the British army drove out the Ottoman empire from this region. Then in 1947 they began to forcibly remove people from homes that their family had held for centuries. One man Bashir told me that when he was 10 years old, he saw them shoot his father in front of their home. They removed his family and now Bashir is working in the Palestinian Peace movement.
Three of the people (Samuel, Musa, and Isaac) that worked at the institute where I studied, told me separately of their being displaced, then of enduring check points when they make their way to work. If the guards are having a bad day the workers are forced to return home and lose wages and thus, they live in poverty. They spoke of how often their children were kept from school. They told of how the Israeli Army would storm into their home in the middle of the night and frighten their children. They told me that The Israeli government would come and destroy the 10x10 cinderblock home that they had been able to receive from the United Nations and then that were not given permits to rebuild so they were displaced yet again.
In October of the year that I lived at the edge of Jerusalem there was trouble at the western wall in the Old City Jerusalem. The Israeli Guards kicked a tear gas canister from the top of the wall and some girls who had come from prayer in the Dome of the Rock started to scream. The boys that were coming from prayer in the El Aksa mosque threw stones at the guards. By the end of the day 19 boys lay dead in the compound known as the temple mount. Two weeks later when I went to that place, small potted plants had been placed where each of the young people had laid and died.
What the Palestinian people have suffered since that time is far worse. Now they cannot get out of their homes because the Israeli government has placed a wall so close to their back door that they can’t open it. The young children ages 8 to 12 are being arrested and kept from seeing their parents for several days. The trauma changes the children for many years of their life. They have restricted access to water and electricity and suffer trauma each time the jets and tanks appear in their neighborhood.
We so often hear that the Palestinians are the cause of the problem that we just think that they should stop sending rockets and then they would not get hurt. Yet after all these years, their voice has been muffled by the nearly 4 billion dollars per year, that the USA gives to the state of Israel, that it is difficult for us to hear what these people are trying to say.
Many years ago, when the people of the world influenced the nation of South Africa to end apartheid a new President Nelson Mandela came to set the country on a new course. The People of Palestine, Arab Christians and Muslims are asking only to be treated as human beings with the same dignity as their Jewish neighbors. They want one state where freedom of movement and opportunity is afforded to all. A place where children are protected and defended.
In our country their message is silenced or distorted by a drum beat of Hamas is the trouble. In their country Hamas is considered to be a Charitable organization which provides for the immediate needs of the people and protects the children.
On May 10, 2021 Hamas asked the Israeli Defense Force to withdraw from the mosques at the end of Ramadan and stop shooting innocent young people by 6 pm or they would strike out against this unjust aggression. The Israeli government leaders were pleased to provoke them and to inflict more harm so that they could demonstrate to their “voting public” that they will be tough on the people who are “a problem”.
65 Palestinian children and one or two Israeli children have died since May 10. Some 2,000 people have been injured. 200 Palestinian Adults and perhaps as many as 2 Jewish children and perhaps12 or 15 Israeli adults have also died.
If we are indifferent then we stand with those who would continue oppression and occupation. The United Nations has called for the Government of Israel to abide by the Geneva Conventions and to end the violence. We must ask the leaders of our country to do more to speak for these people who have no voice and have been given no human rights.”