To think that too many people in this so called civilised society are bereft of compassion?

[spokette]

Today,I did not see the news until 2pm when I tuned in to the BBC website and saw the first news item about Jade Goody.

I did not know the woman and I did not care for her or her ilk (ie slebs famous for doing nothing). However, I felt really sad for her passing and for the two children she has left behind. That is not mawkish rubbernecking, it is called compassion.

Some of the comments I read on the Have your say board on the BBC as well as on Mumsnet, have been discompassionate. Just because you do not know the person, it does not mean that you cannot empathise with them or feel sympathy for them.

I dispair at the human race sometimes.

Yes, i agree, it is just a case of being compassionate isn't it, surely??

I don't like to think of sad things happening to anyone, so of course i am going to feel sad about Jades death and the loss to the family

That should have been despair

She has left two young children.

How can that not be sad?

I think Jade wanted the rubbernecking, tbh.

Here here good post.
I have been truly sickened by some of the things said on here about this poor woman.
I thought mothers might show a bit of compassion over the death of a young mother.

Some people have been more compassionate over someones cat of dog dying on here then over the death of a real person who has left behind two quite young children.
You can replace a pet FFS you can not replace a parent.

yanbu - some people are disgusting - they should keep their opinions to themselves imo

I agree however I am not sure her death warrants the prime minster commenting and cannot help but feel it's a bit like the Diana thing all over again, the countries in a bloody mess and yet people are going to spend the next week or so grieving for a woman very few ever knew or met.

On my facebook some arsehole who I knew at school made the comment 'Thanks fuck that fat, ugly bitch Jade Goody has died'. I can't believe anyone would actually say that. I'm ashamed to have once been his friend

I disagree. I despair of a society that would rather channel their compassion towards random strangers rather than people in their own backyard.

I totally agree Spokette. Just the thought of those little boys growing up without a Mother is enough to make me sad.

I don't think it's either/ or though Expat.

I think you can feel sad about a young sleb mother of 27 dying and feel compassion for people nearer to home. Compassion's not rationed.

I agree with Expat. A moment's sympathy fine but I can't see any need at all for outpourings of grief, comments from the PM and thread after thread after thread about it.

I was going to start a similar thread myself. I completely agree with the OP- some people seem to enjoy being horrible for the sake of it and there have been some awful comments about a young mum who has died leaving behind small children.

I am shocked to the core that people think it is ok, or even funny, to be so nasty.

Expat "I disagree. I despair of a society that would rather channel their compassion towards random strangers rather than people in their own backyard."

Actually, Expat, the two are not mutually exclusive and most people can do both. If they did not, then we would not have organisations like Oxfam, Save the Children etc who can provide for those living in real poverty/need because someone who does not know them had enough compassion to give some of their money, time, spare clothes etc to help them.

The tears are no more alien to me than the unpleasant comments about a young woman who died just this morning. When did that become acceptable practice?

Yeah, but that doesn't mean society is bereft of compassion if they don't do public grief.

Janeite "A moment's sympathy fine but I can't see any need at all for outpourings of grief, comments from the PM and thread after thread after thread about it."

If she had been dead for a more than a week, I would appreciate your point. However, I don't think her passing has been more than 24 hours so really don't understand why one has to be so mean-spirited.

people are nuts though this site is funny, all comments from bbc

i agree with expat. the disproportionate response to the recent coverage is imo largely displacement. but that's not to say taht it's not sad, today, that a woman at such a young age has died and left two children behind.

Am not being mean spirited, or certainly not intentionally - I just don't understand the emotional attachment some people seem to have to things like this.

I suppose a lot of it is empathy. I have 2 young children, I feel for her, her children and her family. I am a very empathetic person at the best of times but being heavily pregnant it is exagerated.

At the end of the day, faced with leaving her children behind, she worked so as to gaurentee them the best future she could. Her work was in the media. Would everyone still be so scathing if her work was something out of the public eye?

It is a sad thing to happen, truly it is.

But man, now we have threads on here hoping that people who've not joined the grief posse have a reason to show up on the bereavement board?

That's twisted.

How many other people died today of some horrible illness?

Maybe people don't know many friend/relatives that have died - 100 years ago we would all have seen more death and therefore been less 'melodratic' about it.

Death happens, its crap but for the PM to make that speech is really unproffessional He is just after the 'pop peoples' vote and should be focusing his efforts elsewhere.

you what, expat? i don't understand.