{"id":41601,"date":"2020-10-23T16:47:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T23:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=41601"},"modified":"2020-10-23T16:47:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T23:47:27","slug":"friday-empathy-one-has-it-and-one-does-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/23\/friday-empathy-one-has-it-and-one-does-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday \u2013 Empathy: One Has It and One Does NOT"},"content":{"rendered":"

You probably noticed that I left out the word “Fun”<\/em><\/strong> from my usual intro.\u00a0 It wasn’t a typo \u2013 it was purposeful.\u00a0 But that’s not because this is a sad tale.\u00a0 In fact, it’s a story about Joe Biden that most of you are familiar with.\u00a0 But I wanted to flesh it out a bit by sharing a couple of items you might have missed.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the two most frequent words used to describe Vice-President Joe Biden are “decent”<\/strong> and “empathy”<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not only are they well-deserved appellations, but those two words are totally foreign to Trump.<\/p>\n

Most, if not all, of us are familiar with the backstory of the tragedies that Joe Biden has endured with exemplary grace and dignity.\u00a0 He lived through the unimaginable tragedy of losing his first wife and 13-month-old-daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in 1972, just a few months after being elected to the U.S. Senate. \u00a0His sons Beau and Hunter, 3 and 2 at the time, were in the back seat, seriously injured and hospitalized for days. \u00a0Sen. Joe Biden had just turned 30.<\/p>\n

From that tragedy, Biden nurtured his innate ability to connect with other people and show compassion for their thoughts, emotions and feelings.\u00a0 It was Pres. Obama who said<\/a> while endorsing Biden’s run: “When Joe talks to families who’ve lost a hero, we hear another parent of an American veteran; a kindred spirit; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It was that ability so clearly demonstrated in this candid talk in 2012 to military families and friends who had lost a loved one, speaking openly of the anger, questions of faith and wounds that really don’t ever fully heal.<\/p>\n

That speech made me realize what kind of man Joe Biden is.\u00a0 While long, the entire talk is worth watching, partly because you see him struggle to put into words his thoughts and emotions.<\/p>\n

For me, the most moving, yet comforting, moment occurs at about the 16:10 mark:<\/p>\n

“There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later\u2026. \u00a0But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I\u2019m telling you it will come.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n