Whose Will Be Done

No, it is not possible to please

all of the people all of the time

by any government even one --  and

-- all the more so one comprised of 

of the multifarious elements of a

varied and complex society. Invariably

there will be some who take offence

and declare it their democratic right

to oppose the government by flocking

to the streets reprimanding a government

that had been democratically elected

by a wide margin most recently. The

vehement denials of a position well

articulated during the election campaign 

winning over a majority vote at the polls

contested through the medium of 

inciting anger among the electorate

by the very government whose second

term bid failed. This is democracy and

this is also the human propensity to cry

foul when one's preferences are given 

short shrift in the greater interests of

pursuing a goal to benefit the entirety.

The raging mobs of denial in their

numbers are those who rail the loudest.

Opposed to the choice of a silent and

determined majority whose will is done.

Extraterrestrial Exploratory Missions

If extraterrestrial civilizational cultures can

send exploratory missions to the vast reaches of 

outer space in search of intelligent life 

they would be far more advanced than those 

that inhabit Earth. Astrophysicists feel of a 

certainty that the time and space of the universe 

is boundless and that the emergence of intelligent 

life cannot but have emerged in countless planets

circling their suns in an unknown number of

constellations, speculation that would assume 

the presence of numberless areas in the endless 

reaches of the universe where life is established 

in gatherings of sentient beings developing 

normatives of racial groupings all harbouring 

the curiosity of affirmation in the presence of 

others capable of thought and emotion and the 

will to learn. Conjecturing that one of those 

technologically advanced searches' itinerary 

included a trip to Planet Earth the idle thought 

occurs of an impression of cerebral capabilities 

lacking the emotional maturity to value a coherent

appreciation of life, focused instead on the

primitive urge to dominate and accrue the

benefits of existence, denying it to others. An

impression certain to amaze rational minds from

outer space, impelling an immediate departure

in fear of infection by this strange Earthly malady.

Life's Cycle

 

Bursting with curiosity, energy and ambition

they have applied themselves rigorously

to the profession of their choice in the

healing arts. They become familiar with

the mechanical dynamics of biology and

enthralled with the vital importance of

knowledge beyond that of the feeble elderly

who depend on their skills to alleviate the

burden that age has imposed on their failing

organs. These are those who have intimate

knowledge of life's fading timeline, their

purpose to extend the date as long as possible.

Existence is a priceless commodity and so is

nature's gift that prevents the young from the

epiphany of certainty that there, one day go I

and in its absence their focus is on those whose

senses have dimmed and whose corporeal substance

is in decline, a challenge to the ingenuity of the

healer charged with ameliorating such symptoms

a felicitous but temporary patch on the wound

of mortality concentrated on the elderly for the

young cannot conceive of themselves as frail and

failing, minds simply oblivious to life's cycle.

 

 

Property Rites

 

They live rent-free on our property.

At least that's what we once thought.

Now, it seems, we're the squatters on

their hereditary land. Their forbears

are indigenous to the land that we thought

we owned and we felt we were being

so generous allowing them free access.

They knew all the while this was their

very own property. Oh, we have the legal

papers all right, as proof of payment

and duly purchased property on which

our house stands. Their right to free

rein we always thought associated with

the forest across from our street where

they frequent the trees and the stream

and nest here and there. They were just

being polite, allowing us the fantasy of

land ownership. Satisfied with the rent 

we in fact were paying them in winter 

victuals in a symbiosis of need and let live.

Indelible Black Stain

 

 

They were once valuable commodities

known also for their potential for those

who judged age, temperament, sturdy

construction as workplace essentials

capable of enriching the buyer. But

they were also quite expendable since

there were plentiful others where they

came from to be rounded up, herded

transported and displayed with pride

as new acquisitions capable as breeding

stock, as physical specimens of hard

labour ably withstanding harsh treatment

inclement weather and insubstantial 

investments in housing, integuments and 

food, an irresistible draw for they could 

also withstand inhumane types of extreme 

punishment. In the final analysis their 

presence represented the armature of a 

nation's economy. A nation which now 

finds itself without answer to the charges 

levelled against it as slavers and human 

rights slackers wealthy, influential but 

torn asunder, eternally damned.

 

 

Felicitously Gifting One's Enemies

When a nation becomes too complacent

over its hard-fought independence

its nation-building energies look elsewhere

to be expended on other value-driven

projects and the management that led to

peace and prosperity suddenly finds itself

confronted with the ages-old spectre of

political, religious and social divides

driving people into their separate coteries

of resentment and opposition. Each faction

convenes assemblies sharing an enraged

sensibility against the other and suddenly

the country becomes polarized as never before.

Before when external dangers threatened the

stability and existence of the nation there 

was accord and a shared existential mission.

Now, while external threats remain latent

awaiting opportunity to yet again strike they

have the leisure of simply watching and waiting

for there is no need for their own action when

the nation and the people they morbidly hate

appear on the cusp of raging self-destruction.

Faith's Occupying Power

 

 Conquest assumes many forms for success.

The fundamental choice of raw power

and the soft power of unassuming infiltration.

Whether the hard power of militarism

or that of quiet conspiratorial reliance on

the steady migration of numbers to begin the

process of gaining entree assuming trust

begetting generations in normalizing a presence

where the exercise of gainfully introducing

a secular society where religion is a private

affair between the faithful and the faith to an

alternate where the faith is the governing essence

of the society demonstrates the efficacy of

soft power's success in the reality of the host

nation failing to recognize the slow and steady

evaporation of its native culture and heritage 

its regulations and values, astoundingly oblivious

to the annihilation of all that is proudly their

own unceremoniously drowned by a furtively

effective occupying power of a foreign faith.

Holocaust Detritus

 

In recognition of a devout and exemplary life

in the faith as a peerless example to their coevals

and those to follow, the bones of martyrs and saints 

become sacred icons placed in reliquaries to be 

worshipped as a sign from on high of what heights

humanity can aspire to. Recently another kind of 

reliquary was discovered, a rubbished collection 

of bones and shards of bones  on the site of a  

former university campus dedicated to  its learned

institute of anthropology, human heredity and eugenics. 

Nazi Germany was big on eugenics and heredity

where the fragments of bone representing the lives 

taken of children, men and women faulted by 

their Jewish heritage were studied perhaps to 

determine their ancient 'race' ordered to be 

extinguished in favour of ridding the world 

of their odious presence. Whatever those 

laboratories found in their grisly inhumanity 

as accessories to mass murder it lacked the 

intention of honouring the human dignity 

of those who died in a passion of hate.  

I Remember

 

She appeared a wizened figure, creased and grey

the first time I saw her but other than that

she was so old and nondescript I remember

nothing about her. The young take little notice

of the very old and I suspect this very old woman 

took no notice of me,  just a little friend her

grandson brought along on a visit. I was a child

and so was he, just in our early teens and it was

his grandfather that impressed with his long white

spade-shaped beard and gentle knowing smile.

I remember a horse in a shed in the back. I

remember a sprawling old chestnut tree in the

garden. I remember when the house was sold

and they entered an old-age home. They both

looked ancient and I was still a child. Now 

on my left hand her wedding ring encircles

my ring finger and I am older than when I first

saw this woman whom time has long since taken.

As I observe the ring I wonder what she might have

thought of this most intimate symbol of her life

adorning the wrinkled hand of a girl unnoticed.

Transformationally Transcendant

 

The Marquis de Sade would be so pleased.

His legacy lives on, in fact continues to expand

beyond his wildest dreams in violet shades of 

sado-masochism as governments at every level

academia, tribunals, corporations and professional 

regulating bodies bow to human rights, signing on

to a cabal of societal change eviscerating all that 

has come before whether it be pure biology

social custom, heritage and authentic culture 

and the tidy order of civilizational norms in 

its entirety. No longer will the entitled white 

imperialist Caucasian male represent the

pinnacle of nature's endowments fit to rule the

world. Relegated henceforth to tertiary status

as is his due while men transitioning to women

are heralded as a brave new adventure in biology

and racialized minorities are lovingly elevated

to positions of authority and entitlements for

this the upholders of human rights proclaim is

but their due, in fact long overdue. No longer 

will the female of the species be the sole vessel

for propagation of new life for womb implants

can work wonders that Mother Nature herself

never envisaged. Boards of Directors comprised

of colours of the rainbow that fabled pot of gold.

Theatre of the Mind

 

Here's an intriguing supposition: the existence

of a parallel world. You don't think so? And why

not? Not plausible. Well listen here, there may

quite well be an alternative world that we inhabit.

That we visit nightly. A parallel life, you see.

Where everything seems perfectly normal and

life goes on in any undirected position, it all just

happens. It does to me. We call them dreams of

course, but what if they're not, what if they're

trips we take in our minds. Our minds after all

are where we live. The landscapes there are always 

slightly different, sometimes we see others who

no longer live in our daytime world and sometimes

we're in places we don't recognize. Listen, you're

there too, with me. Exactly as we are in our other

life. There, and fully engaged in that night existence.

A folly of the mind? I doubt it. When I awaken

I can replay in my mind the thoughts and reactions

that I felt in that other place. You think my mind

simply conjured up these things, a kind of

theatre of the mind... How do you know that?

They Come Knocking

Early morning, who could our little dogs

be barking at so ferociously, ever on guard

announcing the presence of strangers? There

on the porch stand a woman and a man smiling

warmly as I open the door and winter chill

enters the house. They are on a mission and

I am their calling. An invitation, how very

gracious. A familiar hesitant tenor to the soft

voice that brings back other times, other places

and I smile. A Memorial of Jesus' Death

reads the pamphlet he hands me. Once, long

ago I might have remarked that these sweet

Jehovah's Witnesses in their oblivion to cause

and effect seek to introduce me to an iconic

figure they worship for his godliness, is one

my people introduced to the world at large

for his exhortations to peace and serenity of

mind for respecting others and living in

harmony. The misfortune being that they

venerate the messenger while flouting his

message, choosing to demonize instead the

very crucible from which he arose, in fervent

displays over the millennia of scornful

rejection and violent reaction to the world's

most despised people, forever damned.

 

 

Eternal Frozen White

In this silent, solitary landscape of snow

and ice there is an air of serene detachment

like a continent contained within itself where

few choose to venture, remote and inaccessible.

There, eerie beauty reigns in an atmosphere

of frigid calm, a monochromatic vision of

eternal pristine white glimmering in the feeble

light of an endless winter hostile to green life.

A place where majestic mountains of ice float

on a crowded sea of slowly shifting massive

pinnacles flashing and blinking the colours of

magic prisms. The presence of ice and snow in

their regal possession of this place constantly

renewed by blizzards of frozen ornamental flakes

settling over the depthless mounds of centuries.

But this forest is not that frozen continent. Once 

time releases its white season, green returns.

The Faulty Blueprint

Was there ever a time when humanity was  

unaware of the need to be frugal in the husbandry 

of vital resources lest there come a time when 

famine stalked the land? Where primal focus

was survival it was not only the fittest who might 

 endure intact but those that took care to forage 

diligently discovering herbs and fruits of the land 

to sustain habitation each in their assigned portion

of a great wide macrocosm. This neat and tidy formula 

was not the archaic recipe that nature in her wisdom 

endowed her offspring with but in a spirit of mischief 

instead she inculcated in their genetic network a 

fierce antipathy to others similarly endowed.

Traits the ancients in their wisdom knew well 

cautioning against coveting what is justly others' 

to have and to hold, a true injunction of the spirit 

of surviving in amity that humanity has since time 

gone by to the present assiduously flouted in 

favour of assaulting justice and mercy in the 

spirit of territorial competition and conflict. 

Where Arrogance and Ego Intersect

Not everyone is arrogant but everyone

has an ego, even those quietly assuming

nothing, taking pains in all they do to be

the very epitome of a thoughtful and reliable 

mind known for dedication to justice. As one

of such great integrity this man has enjoyed

the respect of those whose own sense of

perception is clouded with partisan issues.

Suddenly his legacy built on years of public

service is crumbling and where once his

saintly figure served as an icon of selfless

devotion to truth and fairness that vision

has been shattered, he  himself the instrument

of the shocking defamation circulating from

among his previous influential admirers. It is not 

a fickle gaggle of erstwhile supporters now

responsible for such a change of fortune but

his own inexplicable decision to accept a

position of enquiry that now sullies his name.

There are times when people devout in their

neutrality are approached with invitations

to test the depth of their character; the wise 

demur, while those infused with ego do not.

 

 

The World Wide Web

We may be physically remote from others

but living in isolation has become a choice

for in this world of instant contact anyone

can 'speak' with and discuss their lives

with others living in far distant lands. This

mode of communication has captured the

public imagination so those who are lonely

and those who are trapped and those whose

surroundings consist of poverty and crime

living without the saving grace of civilized

social mores find themselves imploring absolute

strangers for help and guidance lifting morale

and restoring an antiquated belief in the inherent

goodness of  humanity. Balanced against those

who promulgate hatred finding no lack of like

minded sociopaths in a companionship of hate

affirmation. Charities can turn to an audience

\responsive to appeals for donations to enable

their approach to offering compassion and durable

assistance to those in want. Not entirely negated

by the  legions of predators mocking decency by

masking their ill designs as concern to entrap the

unwary, nor the unconscionable acts of Internet

piracy  holding private and public institutions to

ransom, deceived by the disruptions of malicious

intrusion. A meeting place of the good and the ugly.

Unbridgeable Enmity

How deep does the psychosis of pure

hatred overwhelm humanity's inner core?

How deep is the ocean, how high is the sky.

Unbridgeable enmity based on ancient

perceptions of wrongs and rights are rife 

to the present among humanity tribes and

clans, theistic divisions, territorial ambitions

forever clouding the universal vision of

a life form whose primal subconscious preys

on its civilizationally evolved sense of reason.

To those pursuing a goal of conquest over

enemies no tool destroying human life is too

foul. -- no number of corpses littering both a

field of battle or one dedicated to crops -- too

many for sober second thought. It is the primary

thought that reigns, the one that prompts the

evil nestled deep within to construct devices

meant to explode when a child, a farmer, a

soldier disrupts it. How would they know

they flirt with death when the device is cleverly

designed to resemble a common implement

a toy, a tree stump? The brutish level of such

instruments of death belies pride in humanity.

 

 

The Fatwa of the Islamic Council

Is it motivated by sanctimony or is it a state 

of moral uncertainty that prevails when judging

which is the greater offence against a deity 

in pronouncing a learned judgement? What is 

more sacrilegious, what is deemed to be an 

unacceptable slur with grave clarity against the

almighty perceived by a critical mind on the basis 

of observation, or continued and relentless acts 

of murderous intention on the part of those posing 

as defenders of the faith who will adamantly not 

brook challenges to the sanctity of territory 

consecrated to a belief contrary to the ancestral faith 

that gave impetus to their own? A fatwa issued by

an imperiously elite cleric whose ruling incites

terrorism meting out a death sentence to a writer 

sardonically nettling his faith as then opposed to 

the fatwa seeking to isolate the grisly group whose 

aspiration is to annihilate an entire people to 

satisfy blood lust and an ancient enmity anchored 

in a death cult motivated by the spirit of conquest.

 

 

Abandoning Humanity

 

There is a polarizing struggle with our internal 

sense of the reaction that bursts through our 

consciousness, a tug between pity and empathy

evoking our own prejudices unerringly patterned 

by personal exposure linked to group identity.

The focus on reasonableness and not least

intelligence both abandoned when a people 

submit their future and that of their offspring 

to an authority that views them as puppets 

whose strings can readily be manipulated in 

deference to voices of compelling argument 

that there is nobility in purposeful death

that can be a virtuous undertaking -- both that

 of an enemy and the perpetrator of murder 

reflecting the exalted nature of a struggle 

against a purported enemy. Through the 

eternal blueprint of survival where identity 

and existence are paired with territorial envy

the antagonist's possessions flare into the 

fire of greed and violence impelling leaders 

to coerce their followers trapped in ethnic 

national colours of their duty to embark on 

a war whose prosecution results in fewer people

to contest a land mass of ancestral provenance

not their own. In the process celebrating

the conquest over the corpses of multitudes

the victims' and their own to satisfy whims

 of tyrannical sadists and psychopaths.

 

 

Inculcating Internecine Incitement

Finding dignity in ancestral heritage linked 

to religious devotion is an anchor in life

holding pride of place in the mind's eye

of a subconscious will to belong. Ethnic

social culture and faith in one's ancestors'

belief in the divine spirit that casts a silken

web of comfort is lovingly taught from

generation to generation, parents eager to

confer upon their offspring a devoted link

to the past to guide the future. Enter tribal

and clan dissociative enmities of long

standing in a primitive corner of the mind

to find children steeped deeply in corrosive

legacies of anger, resentment and victimhood

that must be challenged in a paranoid drive

to exact punishment on disparate tribal

cousins and unallied strangers alike, all

painted with the broad brush of tainted

antagonist whose claims and presence are

marked as counter to the fortunes of the clan.

These are the enemies who must be confronted

challenged and avenged to attain coveted

status of defender of the righteous faith.

Awaiting Spring

On a late winter day exuding promise

of spring the fiery sun riding the sky

at its rising angle radiates brilliant

ribbons of light through the naked spires

of the forest canopy to transform the

snow-packed plush of the forest floor

into a scintillating blaze of white. Above

the forested creek unable to contain its

generosity of warmth and light the sun

sheds itself in a perfect reflection on the

still, dark water. There is serenity and there

is promise in the air. There is wind on the

upper level gently moving slender branches

in a cadence of spring welcome. Soon the

atmosphere is softly rent by a haunting

melody that repeats itself then is stilled

when a response in perfect synchrony

echoes beyond the original until a rhythmic

conversation back and forth ensues as owls

convene a discussion on the merits of nest

building and preferred locations in this

winter-resting forest awaiting spring.

 

 

Smile Your Way Past the Gloom

Hey, it's been three years since the world

did a hysterical backflip over a sinister deadly

pathogen unstoppable in its rampage through

the global community. How pandemic time flies.

It's still  here, cunning and mutating but

we're survivors. So rest easy and sleep well

everything's good, no worries. Mind, we

lost quite a few people, close to seven million.

But last I heard the global population is still

steadily rising and we're speaking in billions

no mere millions. There are nasty little details

since the virus continues to sneak about here

and there, disguising itself, picking up new

traits to enable it to creep into respiratory

tracts that haven't been paying attention. In

the last month as example, 4.5M new cases the

world over and sadly, 32,000 deaths but take

note mostly among the elderly who've already

opportuned their options through a long and

possibly rewarding life. Ditch the masks and

party like there's no tomorrow while you can.

Beyond Ageism

No introduction required for there was

an occasion many years ago when his

professional expertise came to the aid

of my dilemma. He is a kindly, avuncular

man, a distinct credit to his healing

profession and fate has placed us once

again in a partnership of the healing arts.

His smile is generous his expertise beyond

question, a man schooled in the ills that

befall that most delicate of vital organs

with which we identify the world around us.

The examination is thorough the prognosis

of surgical intervention assured and we

move on to recommendation and scheduling.

He is prepared once again to operate on my

ageing eyes, to grant me with his assured

proficiency a return to clarity and acute vision.

But while I have aged, so has this skillful man.

And I must consider: do I entrust the outcome

of such an operation on my precious eyes to

someone so advanced in age, well beyond

the official timescale of recognized retirement

for he has been transformed to a confident

yet feeble elder, shrunken and deeply wrinkled

white-haired and stooped. Ten years his senior

I have the appearance of one decades younger

than he. The dilemma of declining  his services

and the potential of offering an indignity to his

ego, balanced against mine of self-preservation.

Inattention to Detail

He came late to the party, a big bash

celebration looking in every direction

party balloons, fireworks, happy people

so he reasoned invitations went out to

select personalities as the music thumped

wherever he went. Clearly, something was

afoot and society was generating buzz over

a colossal transformation. No more glum

faces, no under-the-breath mutterings.

This should be fun, so why was he so 

confused? Wasn't that his old geography

teacher with the ramrod back and blue

tinted hair? And over there, the kid next

door he always took for a boy. Bloody

hell, there's the school bully, big, bad

and gruesome, wearing a pinafore and

stiletto heels. What kind of nightmare is

this, he looked wildly around him. What!

Wrong address? Inattention to flagrant

details glossed over coming back to haunt.

Now he's indignant: What's going on?

When did this all happen? Who let it

settle in? Where's the world I know?

Quaintly Psychopathic

No, wait, don't scoff. It's true. This

brilliant selfless man though knowing his

place in posterity is assured, hesitates to

deprive the world of his presence. True

his ambitions are yet half-fulfilled but

among his many virtues is a cunning patience

and he is content to lounge in the present

with full expectations that his legacy is

yet to be expanded in a challenge to a

predecessor who wears the Russian crown

of mass murderer. His successor is a man

of vision, a perfectionist troubled by the

prospect of unfinished business. After all

there are still towns, villages and cities in

Ukraine that muster for human habitation.

And for all his efforts in tasking his military

their deaths and those of civilians and of

the 'enemy' who irritatingly fights back does

not constitute a genocide. So there is work 

yet to be done and in its pursuit time must

be set aside and his own lifespan assured; the

longevity of a monster for whom science

may offer rescue from an untimely death.

Next Up: Coping

Note To Self:

Note to self: relax. This is a fairly routine procedure,
thanks to modern medical technology. Routine for
the vulnerable elderly. Yes, you are now among that
venerable contingent. Do not unduly concern yourself,
for a renowned and skilled ophthalmology surgeon
will operate. What can possibly go wrong?

Purely rhetorical, not meant for you to muse upon,
that query; a clear invitation to uninformed conjecture.
The bedside alarm rings you awake - as though, in any
event, you were yet sound asleep. The early morning
news is on. First item on the line-up: a news release
that the hospital to which you will be admitted is
struggling to cope with a deadly outbreak of
antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

You shower, feed your little dogs, clean up the ordure
the frail elderly one deposited in the kitchen right after
you let her in from the inclement outdoors. On the road,
traffic is congested, though past the rush hour; likely
frantic Christmas shoppers, but you will arrive at the
surgical unit of the hospital with adequate time to spare.
Forget the sleet, the dull grey of a storm-driven atmosphere,
speak to your nervous and concerned husband.

Persuade him there is no valid reason for him to remain
there in that place, along with all the others awaiting
their surgeries. Best for him to return home, then come
along when you've rested, post-surgery. Focus on
disrobing, pulling hospital fashions over your body,
shuffling along the corridor in blue paper slippers,
gown billowing behind, too large for your small frame.

The smiling nurse, the interview pre-surgery, the careful,
irritating fusillade of eye drops, the blood oxygen tests,
above all the sky-high blood pressure test. You know very
well that high reading is not representative of white-coat
syndrome, and wryly state so. We will judge your pain
post-surgery on a zero-to-ten scale she advises quietly.
You will be given a prescription to cope. Coping.

 

Like Lambs to the Slaughter

Why, many have asked, did they just obey

just meekly accept the edicts that disentitled

them to life, liberty and happiness? Why did they

go, like lambs to the slaughter? Why not fight?

Why did they allow themselves to be annihilated?

Jews, you see, learned to be Bambis, to live in

the forest of rejection,  humiliation, scorn and

the pogroms scheduled to distract their neighbours

from their own oppression by their national leaders

prepared to believe authorities' claims it was all

the fault of grubby Jewish moneylenders, all

the banks owned by Jews, the race a cancer on

decent society. The diaspora of a once-proud

people learned avoidance through the efficacy 

of hidden identities and a recessive presence where

isolation helped and there was security in their

ghettos. Only, much to their dismay to realize

that even the trees they hid behind and the very

stones called out to their oppressors: Here is a Jew

kill  him! An unobtrusive presence, a secret pride

too fragile to sustain life. New eras always dawn.

No need for today's Jews to hide behind foreign

police while trembling in the anguish of fear. In Israel

their home and native land it is Jewish keepers of

the law that preserve their security. And those Jews

elsewhere who once shivered and shook with the

prospect of deadly violence forever offering an

olive branch, now loud and proud confront their

slanderous accusers 'Yes, I am a Jew, my mother is

a Jew, my father is a Jew, my children are Jews'.

All engaged in the critical art of self-preservation. 

The Inspiring Tyrant

Insulation comes in many shades but

it has its start in a scheming mind well

schooled in the manipulative arts of

influence and fear-mongering. Its lessons

are manifold from lackeys anxious to

please in the performance of assigned

duties never questioning edicts that might

trouble the minds of others. Negotiating

skills to convince a populace of the assumed

popularity of the leader whose smiling

face and reptilian eyes mesmerize and inspire

fear. Insulation negates clarification for

mandates brook no hesitation and if the

vulgar forces of conflict intrude the quality

of propaganda stirs faith in national pride

prods youth to declare themselves prepared

to die. And they do. And their families mourn

yet refrain from posing what never occurs to

their minds steeped so deeply in admiration

for the leader astride a horse, muscular in his

ambitions, insulated from consequences.

The Divine Rites of Humanity

 

Does no one note how proximate to the whims 

of man on matters sexual sacred script seems to be? 

As though the hand of God HIMself was that 

of a mortal man whose mind wanders ever toward 

the softly undulating contours of a woman's body 

chafing to own it, for the owner is no more entitled 

to security of her person than a man will permit.

Small girls growing into their assigned roles as 

playthings and future brood bearers are

no more secure from the heated lust of men 

than their mothers for the code that assigns their

place in the scheme of entitlement identifies them 

as object of desire never to be denied to men. 

When in doubt religious scholars take pains to 

elucidate issuing fatwas to assure that all be 

aware of their divine rights and privileges 

for the divine word of God would have it so.

 

 

Species at Risk

 

Man the Wise -- that's us, Homo Sapiens --

has a new problem. To add to humanity's

concerns over vanishing species those that

become extinct for many reasons, principally

that their habitat and food source diminishes

due to human predation. For this problem the

solution appears not to prolong the existence of

sensitive species at risk but to exterminate one

that troubles humanity by its existence. This

animal is a chimera, a breed that humanity

created in a cross between a wild boar and a

domesticated pig to breed attributes like a

heftier weight and faster breeding as a new

alternative for man's dinner plate. Escapees

have proven themselves adept at foraging for

themselves. Like humans they adapt to their

environment and swiftly learned to avoid traps 

set for extermination since human science has

concluded they are too destructive to the sacred

environment of forests where they thrive. Well

consider this: the pig genome rivals humans'.

Our intelligence has not precluded the ruination

of our natural environment yet tagging swine as

environmental disturbers signs their death warrant.

 

 

How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?

This is an important question. Its correct answer 

could solve the problem of  how to regard the defence 

of a man claiming complete innocence of accessory 

to a tyrant's penchant for shutting down dissent 

of his rule through the famed barbarity of bloody

extermination. Crimes against humanity were 

committed in gross abundance but he was no tool 

of the regime merely a meek employee whose loyalty 

to the tyrant was simply to ensure that no attempts

at assassination could succeed on his watch.

He offered his estimable services to take advantage 

of the superior entitlements the guards' group claimed. 

The palace guard that itself skilled in atrocities 

raped, looted, terrified the population, slaughtering at 

will. But not he. Innocent of all charges that impede his 

appeal for amnesty as a legitimate refugee. Incidental 

to the fact that in protecting the life of a mass murderer

he was complicit by default, defending the indefensible.