EMPATHY!

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person's frame of reference, i.e., the capacity to place oneself in another's position.
Thank you, wikipedia.  Well said.
I used to hear the old don't judge until you have walked a mile in their mocassins, then someone mentioned that what I really needed to do was walk that mile in their feet, as the mile and shoes was external, but the person was also experiencing it all within the context of their own bunions, corns, tight-spots in the shoe, stone bruises and tired legs.   

Empathy is more than how would I handle what they handled.  Its how would I handle it if I also came fully packed with their emotional baggage.

Empathy is kinda tough.

But it is time for a lot of it.  I have heard more people whining about the "good old days" this past year than I have for a long time.  The "good old days" were anywhere from 10 years ago to 100 years ago, depending on the age of the whiner.  The whiners are inevitably complaining about some activist wanting--pretty much anything;  better access to voting, women's health care, food for hungry children, fair and equitable treatment, opportunities for education and good jobs, if someone is trying to improve life for all, someone else is whining about missing the "good old days".

My answer to them is try some empathy.

Those great vacations down Route 66 were not much fun if you weren't allowed to drink at the water fountain, eat in the diners and take those all important roadtrip bathroom breaks.

School might have been your favorite time, but probably not if it was at an Indian school where the goal was to stop you from liking any of the things that were part of your life with your parents--no more potlatch, no more language, no more stories, just going to school. speaking English, being taught weird arts and crafts from kits using inferior materials and punishment for saying or doing anything that could be called "Indian".

I always loved the Zoo as a child.  OMG!  Those chimpanzees and elephants with their long lifes and their memories.  What hell was that.  I'm no fan of Zoos now, but most have become more naturalistic.  When I was small, it was nothing to see a 800 pound bear in a metal barred cage that was the size of most bathrooms. 

Empathy!

So, use your empathy.  Think about what you would do if your country was suddenly in a roiling war and you loved ones were in daily danger of being bombed or shot or raped or beaten.  Forget that JOHN WAYNE moment that just flew through your head--and this isn't Red Dawn.  Yes, many would try to fight back, but if you live in a house without assault rifles, or if you are not bullet proof, if you leave your personal bunker to--say--go to church or the grocery store--you family is at risk.  Would you consider leaving the country? 
After they have murdered your spouse and taken all your belongings--would you consider running then?  How about if the area you are living just becomes too unstable and after trying as long as you can to wait it out, you decide, enough, my beloved homeland is no more, would you leave then?

Don't say,"my family doesn't run".  We are a country of immigrants.  For every 1 person that came for money and adventure, a dozen came to improve the not-very-nice conditions their family was being subjected to.  They "ran". 

Now, we hate immigrants and wish for the good old days.  Now we hate people who act like they don't have equal opportunities and wish for the good old days.  We hate old people that didn't retire rich and young people that couldn't afford college, and poor people that can't ever catch a break.  We hate veterans that got wounded, especially if the wounds aren't visible and we hate people that broke during some tough time and never really came back to full function-emotionally. 

We want those good old days where everyone is a hero and every memory is golden. 

We want a fantasy that never really existed for very many or for very long.

But, we need Empathy!