I am doing readings and research for a project for school on compassion as a way to understand how someone who experiences discrimination can still respond to others without anger, bitterness, or resentment.  I am developing a definition sheet about the word compassion that is made up of quotes, various theories, and examples that evoke the meaning of compassion. From reading Compassion: The Culture and Politics of an Emotion edited by Lauren Berlant I have derived this: We all experience suffering/pain in our lives therefore we can relate to others experiencing suffering, compassion is acknowledging suffering and engaging in helping without judgment.

I ask this community:
What have you read regarding compassion?
How would you define compassion?

I am spending most of my time thinking about my oral history project and who I would like to interview. The who is informing the why and the why is informing the who. I think of oral history as the history taking of those in sub-cultures and oppressed groups that are often not documented by historians or the histories are biased. Often, history documentation is focused on those who are in positions of power, with occasional mention of the less powerful. I hope to be documenting the experiences of transgender leaders and activists an how they got to where they are - focusing on resiliency in the face of oppression.

I am so excited to have found the oral history project on Act Up New York. The type of actvism Act Up utilized such as direct action, using visible graphics, slogans, protests/demonstrations and resistance to push for change is what I learned to do and was inspired to do. I think that some of those activism tactics need to be employed again, as the wave of anti-gay, anti-trans, and other negative social and political policies are being put forth, not to mention that HIV is still a huge issue that is getting less and less attention and funding. The drug therapies may prolong a person's life, but that is not a substitute for a cure. HIV is still affecting the transgender community in significant ways and the rates are still very high for transgender women, but because data collection does not accurately collect gender information for transgender populations, transgender people are erased from statistics.

How does history shape us and how do we find out what are the gaps in history?