To whom does hearing matter? We should not hesitate to reply: To everyone! But these days we have to be cautious: there is far too sound that nobody wants to hear — not really.
Yesterday in mid-day I boarded a bus traveling uptown on the Upper West Side: a ride I take routinely every Sunday around noon. As I boarded I heard a loud voice in the rear of the bus, yelling unintelligibly, but very disturbingly: obviously a deranged individual. No one on board wanted to hear that. But he obviously needed to be heard, in some fundamental way.
Our culture has no real concern for the mentally ill, or else they would not be in such evidence. What choices does the poor man have? What choices do we have?