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M o n a x,
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Tony Adams
email: tony at atoms.net

web: atoms.net

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The Charter for (limited) Compassion
I was pretty excited when I heard about The Charter for Compassion. I even added a badge in the left column of this blog. It might still be there urging you to "join the conversation".

I was excited about the idea, but now that I've read it I'm pretty disappointed. For me, compassion helps us recognize our commonality with all the creatures on our planet. The charter is pretty clearly limited to humanity. Humans or humanity is mentioned at least once in each of its four paragraphs. Humanity's membership in the animal kingdom is ignored. If we limit our compassion only to members of our own species, this selfishness will continue to be our undoing.

Buddhists seek enlightenment "for the benefit of all sentient beings" and this clearly includes animals. If they could figure that out hundreds of years ago why should it be so hard to draft a charter for compassion now that is not so exclusive?

I hesitate to even Affirm this document, as simple and painless as that act would be, I feel at the moment that I just cannot do it in good conscience.

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