The picture of a cow feeding on shriveled nepal and the very apparent lack of vitality on both were the main feature on the magazine cover of The New York Times this past Sunday, and it brought back memories of the 30s--Southwest Texas, Northwest Mexico. The Grand Depression had flattened the lives of humans and the severe drought had done the same for the cattle. There was no money to buy cattle feed and there was no grass. The wind had blown the scanty soil, carrying the sentence: no more life.

The water sources had dried up. There was nothing to drink or eat. Some cows died when in desperation they ate the killing poisonous weed. Their carcasses, the absence of birds, except buzzards, were testimony of the losing battle for survival.

It was possible to see some cows as they staggered around in this panorama of defeat; they were adult cows, the calves had died long ago.

Over this dismal melody there was a striking note igniting our heart and stirring strong emotions. The sight of a squeletic cow, skin and bones, unsteady on her feet suffering the double torture of hunger and having her lips pierced by sharp nepal thorns, her cheeks pierced by cactus the size of a hot dog. And then the feeling of helplessness. If you tried to take them out you risk a blow from the animal. It was imposible not to get caught in the whirlpool of emotions: empathy, sympathy, sorrow, guilt for not being able to help. Faced with the dilemma pain or perish, they had fed on the thorny plants. Now some would die, unable to eat at all. These memories came to mind in reading the reports in the newspaper. In Brownsville, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico, it is a daily occurrence to find from one to three bodies of people who drowned trying to cross the river. In Arizona, people avoid the patrols by crossing into the desert and die the horrible death of dehydration. On TV, I saw a woman being pulled by the hair from a truck, harvesting angry blows from the stick of a patrolman. The young bullfighter, asked "Aren´t you afraid of being gored by the bull?" answered: "I have been gored by hunger and by bulls. The goring of hunger is worse."

Looking at the illegal inmigrants from a humane, balanced point of view, it makes political sense to go after a group, to blame and punish, rather than accept at least part of the guilt for an undesirable situation.

Should I blame and hate the cow for her irrational behaviour in eating thorns to try and stay alive? Should I blame and hate the nepal for growing thorns in order to survive?

Should we blame and hate the desperate people irrationally risking death and mistreatment in Mexico and the U.S., when all they are trying to do is survive? Should we blame the people "on the other side" for trying to defend themselves from this tidal wave of human beings? Or, shall we try to understand that not everybody is evil? Sometimes it comes in handy to rationalize our negative feelings by thinking: "They are wrong, they are criminals, they are evil. Let´s kill them."

But, how about turning around and saying: I am evil when my judgement is lacking in love, understanding and compassion.

Everybody is suffering, facing painful choices.

Even the politicians in high office suffer. It is not the pain of biological survival but the pain coming from the threat to their power. Everybody is facing painful choices. Everybody is suffering, for different reasons, in different degrees. But it is suffering. The next thing is: what do we do with this feeling? Shall we use it to give carIño, comprension, compasion, or are we going to say: I am uncomfortable and somebody has to pay for it. Let´s take it out on them.

And now this bring us back to you and me: Are we going to use the three Cs: cariño, comprension, compasion, as we face our daily frustration in getting more annoying tasks and less satisfaction? Painful choices between what we need and what we get. They are not a matter of life or death, but the feelings arising from these transactions are powerful. For the sake of ourselves and others, let us channel them in a positive trajectory.