Lords of the Poor

I wonder how social workers and advocates could be considered defenders of the helpless when they have never been helpless themselves. It is like the wolf feeling empathy for the sheep. Even if a tamed wolf makes a good sheepdog, he will never understand how the sheep feel. The one who has understood helplessness, who has experienced the bitterness that feeling brings, they are the only ones who know what evil the helpless experience.

-A revised quote from Elizabeth Moon, Deed of Pakssinarion