I understand your point and I too have seen people end up in the soup when they intended something else. See if this makes sense to you:

Good and evil apply only to life. It comes down to life or death, existence or non existence. This is the fundamental alternative open to a living being. Those things and actions that promote life are good, and those that don't are bad. Humans do not automatically know the good from the bad, however, and cannot survive on the intellectual level of plants or animals. We have to learn good and evil as we go along. Our own individual lives are our standard of value, with our happiness as our purpose. It is an entirely selfish process.

It is through rationality that individual men have discovered every good thing we know. A reliance on superstition, revelation, instinct, and whim has been the cause of most of our problems.

Thanks to our Founding Fathers and some brilliant minds before them we have discovered and put into law our right to our own lives, our freedom, and our pursuit of the goal of happiness. This was a complete change from other governments that effectively owned and controlled the the geography, goods, and the people.

What is not well recognized, however, is the fact that no man is dutybound to be a sacrifice for others, and no one has the right to sacrifice another person. "Hands off" is the basic idea, with no man assuming the right to initiate the use of force against another. Sadly, our government has become the greatest violator of this principle, on a scale that no thug or criminal could achieve. I mean the use of taxation and laws to obliterate our rights and confer on some the property and wealth taken from others.

As to humility and compassion. A rational man will be humble in the face of his errors, but his pride and his self worth will make him correct his error and proceed up a better path. A rational man learns to seek the things and virtues that are good for his life, and when he sees them displayed in another person, he values that person, too. But it is a love and respect that has been earned. Compassion also has to be earned. However, I can feel compassion for a stranger, unless and until he proves he is not worthy of it (maybe he turns out to be a crook or a parasite).

I suppose this is the wrong thread for these thoughts, but it was offered in the context of Mr. Hellums' situation.