{"id":3765,"date":"2022-03-04T09:20:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T14:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3765"},"modified":"2022-03-04T09:20:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T14:20:12","slug":"pain-and-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3765","title":{"rendered":"Pain and Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/JPA332.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"416\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/JPA332.jpg\" alt=\"Pain and Suffering\" class=\"wp-image-3766\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/JPA332.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/JPA332-300x223.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe it was because it was Ash Wednesday, and as a proper Roman Catholic, I was just looking for a reason to feel guilty. But as I was driving and listening to Michigan Radio and the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/2022-03-02\/russia-confirms-casualties-in-ukraine-ahead-of-the-next-round-of-talks\">&nbsp;latest news from the war in Ukraine<\/a>, I passed a gas station. When I saw $3.79 on the marquee, I instinctively calculated the cost of my next fill-up and frowned in disapproval. Then the radio informed me that there are already one million Ukrainian refugees with up to four million expected soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yeah, poor me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, I fully understand that rising gas prices are a significant problem for many Americans. But it isn&#8217;t fleeing our home. It isn&#8217;t exploding missiles. It isn&#8217;t violent death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Americans we are blessed with two oceans that have kept us well insulated. The last large-scale land war we experienced directly ended 157 years ago (and it was us battling us). I am absolutely grateful for this. But as a consequence, we don&#8217;t seem to have the proper context for what war is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, let us carry on with our kvetching about gas prices and other real and perceived inconveniences. I mean, we&#8217;re human \u2014 we&#8217;re gonna complain no matter what. But perhaps give some consideration for what real pain and suffering is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe it was because it was Ash Wednesday, and as a proper Roman Catholic, I was just looking for a reason to feel guilty. But as I was driving and listening to Michigan Radio and the&nbsp;latest news from the war in Ukraine, I passed a gas station. When I saw $3.79 on the marquee, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3767,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}