I can identify and agree with virtually all you describe about what you feel and why.

I mean no disrespect to you when I sa y that I can't agree.

I wasn't aware of this person or the Internet avalanche that ensued and I wasn't a part of it. However, I have witnessed similar on the Internet.

Empathy, not 'love', in my opinion is what 'makes the World go round'. Empathy involves acceptance and understanding, not least that there will be those who, for whatever reason, whether logical or illogical, rational or irrational, will make decisions with which we don't approve, can't agree, believe to be wrong, see in a different way and so on.

What appear to be the worst, most fickle, most stupid, most arrogant, most selfish, most harmful, most irresponsible of those decisions will more often than not arise either from cultural differences, (including religion & conditioned belief systems), or from some form and degree of mental dysfunction or illness.

All of us, at one time or another, make bad decisions or choices. All of us, at one time or another are selfish. All of us, at one time or another, act in ways that contribute to the pain, suffering, injury or death of others.

According to the World Health Organisation, there were around 12,000 children dying *each day* before the pandemic even began. I could give you many more such statitstics but that will suffice to make my point. Those children needn't be dying. They die not because of untreatable or incurable diseases or infection such as your friend's cancer but because of basic lack of clean water, hygiene, nutrition & medical support.

Why are those elements lacking? Is it because the World cant provide them? No. It is because people don't care. Out of sight, out of mind and, sadly, all too often in sight but out of mind.

Yes there are those in the rich world who are disadvantaged and also suffer unnecessarily but, thankfully, not on the same scale. For most in the rich world there is at least access to food, clothing, shelter, medical attention & clean water. The majority also have access to disposable income. Do they spend it on providing resources for those without, either in their own nations or in those of the majority world? As a generalisation, no, they don't. They spend that disposable income on trivia and excess and they do so in full knowledge that billions, yes billions, in our world live on the equivalent of less than $2 per day or, perhaps, die on less than $2 per day.

Trump's handling of this epidemic has been woeful and the deaths of all in the USA that have resulted from the pandemic could well be laid at his feet. The person you mention could well have taken his guidance from Trump, believing in his president as most of us are taught or expected to do. - After all, despite it being clear that the man is corrupt, egotistical to an insane degree, a megalomaniac, self-important, continually changing his stance to garner support and whipping up mass hysteria whenver possible; people still stand when he enters the room, soldiers salute him, & people will say he must be respected because he's the President.

Trump's model to the nation has been and is a disgraceful one. So, if we are not to care that someone died because they wouldn't wear a maks, neither should we care if Trump is assassinated or infected and dies. Nor should we care if murderers are, in turn, murdered by the State.

There is the problem with your argument. As soon as you start to discriminate on whose life is worthy of respect and whose isn't, you (generally speaking, i.e. 'one') are lost. As hard as it may be to see or understand, the consequences of such a decision, particularly if taken by many, are a descent into a place where no right-thinking, caring person wants to go.

Human beings are human beings, for better or worse. 'Good' human beings sometimes make bad decisions and/or do bad things. 'Bad' human beings sometimes make good decisions and/or do good things. In the main, we do the best we can based on our mental state, our conditioning, our experience, our knowledge and our ability.

It is patently obvious that we are *not* born equal. However, it is morally just that we seek to respect each and every life equally.

I am saddened at your friend's diagnosis and struggle and gladdened that she has the support of someone such as yourself. However, if we wish the human race to learn to live in peace and harmony, our first step has to be to pursue and show empathy for those whose actions we find most reprehensible or impossible to understand or rationalise. It is easy to empathise with those who share your own views or feeling or to whom you are close. It is a more difficult challenge to empathise with those who don't or those to whom you have no direct relationship. Yet both, are just as deserving and important.