We did indeed, work it out.   :-)

And I did say, in my original post, that I was entirely supportive of 
being empathic and generous with someone who is showing discomfort.  Not 
to the point of not nursing, but to the point of making simple human 
contact with anyone!  Talk and compassion go a long way.

However, not everyone is either compassionate, or rational.  There are 
nasty people in the world.  No, really, there are.  People who no matter 
how much time, effort, energy or compassion you give them, will remain 
locked in their bigotry, hate and nastiness.  Damaged people.  Damaged 
people who latch on to some things, and argue and scream and blind fight 
from nothing other than their own pain.  People who need to control, to 
tear, to destroy.

We need to keep them in mind, when talking about when such statements 
are being made about disgust etc.  For some of the people making these 
statements are not speaking from anything other than a damaged agenda - 
a damage we can do nothing to heal or minimise. 

Hence we have laws, and regulations, and protection for the things that 
have to remain paramount: above personal reaction and experience..  
Things that, as a society, we state are important and rise above 
personal prejudice.  Nursing infants is one of them.  So yes, be 
compassionate with those who can hear it, and open discourse with those 
willing to talk.

But also slap the morons and monsters down hard and fast and point out 
they _cannot_ impose their damage on anyone else.

Full stop.

It's a difficult balance to find ... but then, so is life! 

Morgan Gallagher


Jo-Anne wrote:
>>
>> Joanne Elder and others ventured quite eloquently, I thought, into an 
>> exploration of what sort of empathy should=
>> /could be felt for those who find proximity to the act of 
>> breastfeeding upsetting
> Thanks, Kerry, but I'm afraid I was far from eloquent, since many 
> people thought I was calling for empathy for the discomfort of the 
> "watchers" when I was talking about empathy for the discomfort of some 
> breastfeeding mothers. My post was in response to statements that 
> people from outside of the US were generally more comfortable with the 
> idea of breastfeeding in public than Americans, and my experience with 
> a group of mothers (Muslims and Christian Blacks from Africa) wasn't 
> consistent with that perception. It also seemed to suggest that in 
> Texas, people are intolerant, and people from other cultures are 
> breastfeeding-friendly. Maybe true, maybe not, but "other cultures" is 
> a pretty broad group. Anyway, I think I worked it all out with Morgan. 
> :-)

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