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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (27333)	12/27/1998 9:06:00 PM
From: Rick Julian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I believe the proportional good Mother Theresa accomplished in the face of abject poverty and suffering versus what you (I assume) or I have ever done in terms of daily charity is what struck me as so absurd in your assertion. What follows are a poorly organized collection of excerpts I gathered in a very quick search: "Mother never has claimed to make hospitals, homes, etc. just as they are known in the west. This is not why she started the society. She herself says: "we are not social workers". Mother started the Home for the Dying more than 40 years ago to offer the most suffering of Calcutta a place to die." ". . .The woman was half eaten up by rats and ants. I took her to the hospital, but they could do nothing for her. They only took her because I refused to go home unless something was done for her. After they cared for her, I went straight to the town hall and asked for a place where I could take this people, because that day I found more people dying in the street." "Maggots infest the heads of many as well as malnutrition, maleria, tuberculosis along with other deadly illness which plague the thousands of street people of Calcutta, India." "In Calcutta, some time ago, we went out at night and picked up four or five people from the street and took them to our Home for the Dying. One of them was in a very bad condition and I wanted to take care of her myself. I did for her all that my love could do. When I put her into bed, she took hold of my hand and there was such a wonderful smile on her face. She said one word: "Thank you" and she died. She gave me much more than I had given her. She gave me her grateful heart and I thought: what would I have done in her place? My answer was: I would have tried to draw some attention to myself, I would have said: I am hungry or I am cold or I am dying. But she, she was so great, she was so beautiful in her giving. The poor are great people." Thee are many more documented examples of her work, so let me get on to your pal Christopher Hitchen's criticisms: "The care facilities are grotesquely simple: rudimentary, unscientific, miles behind any modern conception of what medical science is supposed to do. There have been a number of articles - I've collected some more since my book came out - about the failure and primitivism of her treatment of lepers and the dying, of her attitude towards medication and prophylaxis. Very rightly is it said that she tends to the dying, because if you were doing anything but dying she hasn't really got much to offer." Its %#@@&%$* Calcutta! Bet they didn't have TVs and air conditioning either! From the looks of it Mr. Hitchens has probably NEVER missed a meal, much less comforted a dying leper in a slum in India. Neither have I--how about you Christine.? Mother Theresa did this for 40 years. To your credit though, you "have always offered children toys to play with, and not left them bored and hungry." Uh huh. [I'm tempted to address each of Hitchen's points, but to tell the truth I've seen enough of his self absorbed, egotistical, bile spewing TV interviews on any number of other subjects that it's not worth my time or energy to counter his assertions. He occasionally makes a point, but it's so obscured by his overwhelming negativity that it hardly merits mentioning. He sorely needed more lap time as an infant. And more love.] He does let us know where he's coming from . . ."I'm an atheist. I'm not neutral about religion, I'm hostile to it." --C. Hitchens [my bold] Oh, nevermind. Rick