Friday – Empathy: One Has It and One Does NOT

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

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

Most, if not all, of us are familiar with the backstory of the tragedies that Joe Biden has endured with exemplary grace and dignity.  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.  His sons Beau and Hunter, 3 and 2 at the time, were in the back seat, seriously injured and hospitalized for days.  Sen. Joe Biden had just turned 30.

From that tragedy, Biden nurtured his innate ability to connect with other people and show compassion for their thoughts, emotions and feelings.  It was Pres. Obama who said 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.”

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.

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

For me, the most moving, yet comforting, moment occurs at about the 16:10 mark:

“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….  But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I’m telling you it will come.”

 

As most of us have come to learn, Biden endured hardships while growing up from a serious stutter affliction.  It’s one of the reasons he gives his phone number to any child he encounters who stutters (a tribulation that affects 70 million people worldwide), telling them they belong to the same club.

You might recently remember one such child, Brayden Harrington, that Joe first met on a rope line:

You also might well remember seeing Brayden give Biden a must-watch endorsement at the DNC Convention.

But I really want to share a recent video of Brayden showing the impact Biden’s empathy has had on him while giving Joe a “pep talk”.  The kid is amazing!

To close, I want to share a very brief video from two years ago of Biden meeting and comforting Parkland families who lost loved one in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.  It was recently re-posted by the videographer because he wants to be sure that Biden is elected, and rightfully believes his empathy is one of his strongest assets.

The clip ends with Biden shaking hands with Debra Hixon, who explains she’s the widow of Chris Hixon, the heroic coach who died trying to save students in the shooting.

But after this exchange while Biden is walking away, Hixon’s son, Corey – a special-needs boy, runs after him for a hug.  And Joe Biden’s reaction is just what we’d expect from a man with such boundless empathy.

While he wasn’t my first or second choice, I can honestly said we can be proud and are blessed to have him as our candidate …

I'm one of those who frets that the election will be much closer than the polls indicate. That in a world where non-voters are never targeted by Dems, huge turnout could contain multitudes. So I'm dropping some old footage of Joe Biden here: pic.twitter.com/74UROClgbh

— Arun Chaudhary (@ArunChaud) October 21, 2020