If there is something to feel pity for, it is certainly not me: there are greater woes in the world.
But one must be careful of not adopting others' woes as a proxy expression of one's own sense of grievance.
This usually comes coupled with an objectionably self-righteous sense of entitlement to 'rescue' ...
... and because the demands are on behalf of another, they are all the more imperious, because the selfishness is cloaked.
The most proper response to pity for others is to consider what one can do to help them help themselves: not to become enmeshed in their grievance.
That doubles the victimhood, doubles the suffering, and doubles the problem.