This year, I am hosting a Cinco de Mayo party, and to help me get into the right mood for my party, I have re-watched the movie McFarland USA, starring Kevin Costner and several other champions. As in previous years, I wept, as I recalled that indeed–

“Champions Can Come from Anywhere.”

In my opinion, great movies are often agents of empathy, and McFarland USA distills empathy–a shared compassion–as opposed to a more one-sided sympathy.

Let’s Define Empathy

Empathy – “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions.

Sympathy is often One-Sided. Sympathy often comes from some supposed position of higher ground, when a more superior or evolved person feels sorry for another.

“Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone else’s misfortune, while empathy is understanding and sharing the feelings of another person. Empathy involves a deeper connection and engagement with another person’s emotional experience, whereas sympathy can be a more detached feeling of pity. ” Google AI

In McFarland USA, both the Mexican-American families and the White Americans evolve and connect. Again, Sympathy is often One-Sided. Empathy is a Mutual Exchange,=.

Kevin Costner plays the part of Coach White, who comes to work at McFarland High School because he had no other options. Within minutes of arriving at his new teaching-coaching post, he vows to escape from the poor and seemingly worthless community–as soon as possible. But Coach White was financially strapped, and he needed his job, which included coaching a cross-country team. His first obstacle was in recruiting and holding on to 7 runners who would make a team.

Unlike most school kids, those at McFarland, CA, were pickers who hit the fields at dawn and who picked after school until dark.  Because he needed his sons in the field, a father forced his sons to leave the team. When Coach White visited the family’s home, he began to understand the sacrifices that the kids at McFarland High were forced to make to be part of a team: Ultimately, the Coach pledges to help in the fields–if the father will allow his sons to train and run,

Because he dared to see his runners and their families as complex humans, the white Coach White discovers that in many ways, the Mexican families are superior to him. For instance, the Mexican Americans in the movie have strong familial connections, and White seems to lack that quality. Not long after the Whites moved to McFarland, the coach forgot to bring a birthday cake home for his daughter’s birthday. Later, he realized that a Mexican family would not have made that mistake.

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Children and birthdays were important in the Mexican-Americans in the movie. Later, after both sides of the equation had become more empathetic, the Mexicans helped their Coach throw a Quinceañera for his older daughter. “A quinceañera is a celebration marking a girl’s 15th birthday in Latin American cultures, signifying her transition from childhood to womanhood. It typically includes a religious ceremony, a grand entrance to a reception, a choreographed waltz, and various other traditional elements.” Google AI

Because both groups of people grew or became empathetic, the once-reluctant Mexican American families got behind their sons’ team. They had a bake sale to help buy uniforms, and when the team went to  the state competition, the entire town, in their low-riding, worn-out vehicles, followed the bus to the race.

Does this sound like a Cinderella Fairytale that could never happen in real life? It is not. The movie McFarland USA is based on a true story–a tale shared by an entire community–a tale that changed the lives of an entire community–a tale made possible because of empathy.

Often, as I have heard of one of Trump’s mean behaviors or another, I have thought: “The man has no empathy,” And recently, Elon Musk said that Empathy would be the downfall of the USA.

“We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk said. “And it’s like, I believe in empathy. Like, I think you should care about other people, but you need to have empathy for civilization as a whole and not commit to a civilizational suicide.” – Elon Musk in an interview with Joe Rogan.

Apparently, Donald Trump agrees. But the truly sad thing is that Donald Trump is a Narcissist. He is unmoved by any behavior that does not profit him in one or several obvious ways.

“Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by self-absorption, grandiosity, exploitation of others and lack of empathy.” The National Library of Medicine

The truly dangerous thing in our current political position is that many have gone down the dark rabbit hole of no empathy with Trump. For many people today, empathy is nothing more than a distraction–a weakness, God help us,