Personal experience and direct observation of a problem can be motivational, but it's hardly a panacea for immorality--attaching real faces (millions of them) to a "problem" didn't stop Nazi soldiers from committing genocide.
Fair solutions to real-world problems require more than concrete comprehension of the situation. In large-scale decisions (like the ones we entrust our elected officials to make), abstract and theoretical understanding is often more important. Emotion is more easily clouded than reason, and while individual human experience ought not be eliminated from the equation, rational choices consistently yield better results.
That's a principle in which blindly idealistic college students aren't supposed to believe. Fortunately for our nation, we aren't yet allowed to run for national office.
Ayres: Editorial Cartoon
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This column was great, until the "Yale sluts" incident got brought in. Tom Lantos was a great man, and people should be more aware of his admirable actions, but trying to to them into an incident on campus that was not, say, a rally on Darfur, is silly and disrespectful to Congressman Lantos's legacy.