A Curious Curiosity -- WBZ, a local television network, asked viewers to write what they are curious about. I wrote the following:

I am curious as to why some of us have the ability to empathize with the poor, the sick, and with those who have had to endure such virulent racism from some of our body politic. Why are we so different politically from each other?

I am ardently for the passing of this historic health care legislation. It is not perfect but it hopefully will improve over time. The insurance companies with their tyrannical for profit hold on whether we live or die cannot be allowed to continue with business as usual. They must be held accountable. They have done this to themselves by their policies which hung an albatross of despicable actions around our necks.

Why can some of us empathize with those who need care and others can do nothing but hurl unconscionable racist epithets catapulting this nation back into another century in which we fought a bloody war to create a more just nation. Why, too, is health care linked to this despicable racist spewing?

It makes me wonder what really is the etiology of our profound political differences? Is it cultural or is it systemically in our DNA?