Rights of others

In addition to be ironic, there is nothing more potentially hostile than people who recently gained their independence from a foreign occupier after a long and violent struggle then take the side of another occupier of another people's land.  If they claimed and reserved their rights to defend themselves, oppose their enemy, and free themselves from their masters, why do they deny today the rights of others to do the same? 

A friend of mine of Algeria recently suggested that I refrain from empathizing with a people who was struggling through life and that I should enjoy myself instead just because I have a few privileges and rights the political and economic system had allowed me to have.  Then I remembered a few suggestions I have read in books:

• Do not be in the way of those who aspire and struggle to have the same rights for themselves.
  
• Listen to those who speak of their daily struggle, their daily hopes, and their daily battles.
  
• Empathize with them.
  
• Do not disparage them.
  
• Do not lessen their pain just because it is not one of your own.
  
• Do not claim the system is just and legal because you are able to put food on your table, travel to your favorite destination, pay for the soccer club fees of your young children, and are able to make the monthly payment for your newly-bought car.
  
• Do not repeat the same arguments uttered by paid tongues on the corporate media (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc...) and government-sponsored media (those federally-sponsored media such as NPR and PBS). An example is the latest report by ABC's famed Diane Sawyer who narrated on the plight of Israelis while showing the pictures of Palestinians. Was it a mistake or a lie which people caught?
  
• And ask yourself WWJD (What would Jesus Do)?
  
• And If you come upon a bullying, before you take the side of the bully - he probably has an army of journalists -, think again because you are most probably making a  mistake.