What does the word “compassion” mean to you? The Latin root of the word literally means: “to suffer with” someone. In other words, we should be concerned about the plight of others and do something to help them. I would think most Christians would believe that means we should give of our time, our talents, or our treasure to help others. That would certainly include giving our time and money to charity.

Charity is not a government program. Charity is a voluntary gift of time and money to help those in need. Some callers to my radio program want to equate supporting a particular government program (like Obamacare or comprehensive immigration reform) to compassion. That is a misuse of the word.

Arthur Brooks in his book, Who Really Cares, documents the significant divide between liberals and conservatives and between secular people and religious people when it comes to charity. One group talks about compassion and helping the poor and downtrodden. The other group actually gives their time and money.

He found that households headed by a conservative gave on average 30 percent more money to charity than households headed by a liberal. This discrepancy was not due to income differences. It turns out that liberal families earned more each year than conservative families.

He also discovered that registered Republicans were more likely to give than registered Democrats. In his book, he shows two maps: one is the electoral map and the other is a map of charitable giving. People in red states and blue states have very different giving patterns in America.

He also found that the difference go beyond time and money. Conservative Americans are more likely to donate blood each year. He concludes that if liberals and moderates gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply in the United States would jump by 45 percent.

The conclusion is simple. One group may talk about charity and compassion, while the other group actually acts on it.

The problems with the roll out of Affordable Care Act are only part of the PR problems of Obamacare. Already hundreds of thousands of Americans who purchase their own health insurance have received cancellation notices because the plans do not meet one or more of the federal requirements. At the moment, the number of cancellation notices greatly exceed the number of Obamacare enrollees.

Last month Blue Shield of California sent termination letters to 119,000 customers. About two-thirds of those people will experience a rate increase. Kaiser Permanente canceled 160,000 plans. That amounts to half of its insurance plans in the state of California.

The insurance carrier Florida Blue sent out 300,000 cancellation notices. That will affect 80 percent of the entire state’s individual coverage policies. Nearly 800,000 of health plans for New Jersey residents will not longer exist in 2014.

Those people who are able to find a substitute plan will end up paying much more. A study by the Heritage Foundation answered the question: “How Will You Fare in the Obamacare Exchanges?” They evaluated the experience for individuals shopping on the state exchanges. They compared the premium prices to what was available to them prior to the implementation of the exchanges.

In nearly a dozen states the premiums would increase by 100 percent or more for someone who is 27 years old. They also found significant increases for an adult age 50 and for a family of four.

The greatest increase reported so far was the CBS story about a Florida woman whose premium increased ten fold. But even smaller increases have generated negative responses. A Los Angeles Times article tells the story of a woman with a 50 percent rate hike who said “I was all for Obamacare until I found out I was paying for it.”

Many are finding how unaffordable the Affordable Care Act really is.

Last week we learned more about the allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) was engaged in surveillance in other countries. Apparently this included the wiretapping of about 35 foreign leaders. The president supposedly did not know about this, but certainly members of his administration must have known about this.

The extent of domestic and foreign surveillance was the sort of concerns raised by Edward Snowden. While some are calling him a traitor, many actors in Hollywood have produced a video that calls him a whistleblower. They also warn Americans about the danger that is coming from NSA surveillance.

The video has the title: “Stop Watching Us” and features statements by director Oliver Stone, actors John Cusak and Maggie Gyllenhaal. We also hear from talk show host Phil Donahue and Daniel Ellsberg (of Pentagon Papers fame). They all object to the widespread surveillance program administered by the NSA. They believe the current administration is invading our privacy.

James Hirsen was on my radio program to talk about some of the public service type of videos being produced in Hollywood. He noticed the same thing that I noticed about the “Stop Watching Us” video. The video warns us with photos and videos about the past abuses from J. Edgar Hoover and President Richard Nixon. Those abuses are certainly relevant to the discussion. But what was missing was any mention of that fact that this surveillance was taking place while Barack Obama has been president.

It is fair to say that nearly every person in the video has been a supporter of President Obama. So I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised the participants go out of their way to warn against the abuse of a government agency but fail to mention who is ultimately in charge of that government agency.

The video raises legitimate concerns about government surveillance. But it ends up avoiding any mention of a president that has allowed this to happen on his watch.

The new iPad and iPhone on the market is one more reminder about how fast technological changes are taking place. Many other technologies may simply

cease to exist. Some will die quickly. Others will die a slow death and eventually disappear.

Years ago it was easy to see that CDs would replace phonograph records. That’s exactly what happened. We could also see that coming with our VCRs.

For the better part of three decades, the VCR was the dominant form of watching video. Today, VCRs are quickly disappearing due to the DVD. You may still

have VHS tapes in your home. You may even have a VCR. If you do, you are quickly becoming the exception rather than the rule. Soon VCRs and VHS tapes

will be gone.

What are also on the way out are movie rental stores. I can remember going into stores that didn’t have DVDs. Now DVDs are all they have. But people

aren’t coming to the stores because they can download videos or order them from Netflix. So movie rental stores are closing.

How about cameras? Used to be the only camera you could buy required that you also buy film to put in the camera. Now almost all camera companies

make only digital cameras. Many announced years ago they would stop making film cameras.

And what about television? Most homes get their TV programming from cable or satellite. The homes that still use rabbit ears or outdoor antennae had to

get a converter box. Analog TVs are about to go extinct.

Finally, think about how we write to one another. Yes, people still write letters and thank you notes. But most of the communication today takes place

through e-mails and text messages. More than two million e-mails are sent worldwide every second. Text messages are most likely sent at that same order of

magnitude.

We live in a world of remarkable change. Many of the technological wonders of the past are going extinct. That is due to the digital revolution.