Barbara Ascher On Compassion Essay

The question of whether compassion is innate or learned is a question that Barbara Ascher attempts to answer in her essay entitled “ On Compassion.”As opposed to Ascher’s claim on how compassion and empathy come to life, my experiences have proved otherwise. Although the text does not mention where the essay was published ( newspaper or magazine), judging from the vivid language that appeals to the senses, I believe this piece was published for an opinion section in a magazine. Ascher begins her essay by illustrating various scenarios which may or may not emphasize compassion. The first example is about a poor disheveled black man approaching what appears to be a relatively wealthy ( Asher mentions an Aprica stroller, which upon further …show more content…
According to an article from the New York Times entitled “ Despite Shrinking Populations, Eastern Europe Resists Accepting Migrants”, I read that “at the same time, residents of the Eastern nations have proved unwilling to welcome migrants, especially those of a different faith, to a region whose historical memory includes battles to throw off Muslim occupation.” I am sure that many Eastern European residents, in this case, Bulgarians are not immune to the economic difficulties and hardships faced by immigrants, as they themselves are subject to these difficulties when immigrating to more prosperous European nations. Despite being exposed to the issues that Muslim immigrants face in their native countries and in some cases facing similar experiences themselves, Eastern Europeans are not keen on accepting migrants into their nations. This makes me wonder if in some cases, compassion has more to do with a nation’s history and culture than merely having exposure to the issue that is supposed to give birth to