Chapter Forty-Three
ISHMAEL
[ a poem ]
Tick-tock goes the time bomb in a crowded train station,
as a thin angry man awaits his final destination
The priest wears fine robes mocking souls he can’t save,
beseeching a wayward flock to somehow behave
Restless children stare out stained-glass windows into space
beyond a statue of Jesus silently weeping in disgrace
“I’m no plastic statue, my name’s Liberty”, but no one hears
amongst rosaries and Christian bells of St. Marie
In between bites of Thanksgiving Day turkey,
on the early-evening six o’clock news
Another crumbled edifice lying in shattered ruins
and another dozen or more dead Jews
As full plates of potatoes and stuffing are passed,
we are reminded of holocaust and of people gassed
And as the media once more defines dubious lines of war,
once again it is explained just who the terrorists are
Oh say, can you see? America pretends to be free
as she carves up the world how she wants it to be
Amidst politics of expediency doling out military aid
and it doesn’t much matter who ends up enslaved
Democracy is never really considered in the equation,
nor does she stoop to defend a third-world African nation
While ignoring terrorism and tyranny in countries without oil,
In a guise of self-protection, she wages war on foreign soil
Before the Creator there is no dark or light,
no male or female, no one wronged who’s right
There is no ‘homo’ or ‘hetero’ sexual
There is no fool or wise intellectual
No slave or free, no Palestinian, Jew or Greek,
no brave or honorable person, there is no strong or weak
We are one blood, one creation, under God indivisible,
any imagined difference is superficial and artificial ¹
As long as America operates as if superior to other nations
there will be foreign wars and homeland tribulations
And as long as we enslave a single brother of humanity
there are no Human Rights nor are any of us free
So, let there be peace on earth and goodwill toward all
and may insanity's roaring lion cease her battle call
This plea goes up to the Father of Lights and Human Rights,
beyond universes infinity, above who there is no other
Just a note signed father Abraham, on behalf of my son and
Palestinian brother.
The priest wears fine robes mocking souls he can’t save,
beseeching a wayward flock to somehow behave
Restless children stare out stained-glass windows into space
beyond a statue of Jesus silently weeping in disgrace
“I’m no plastic statue, my name’s Liberty”, but no one hears
amongst rosaries and Christian bells of St. Marie
Tick-tock goes the time bomb in a crowded train station,
as a thin angry man awaits his final destination * **
INTERPAL: Helping Palestinians In Need
Jewish Students
for Palestinian Rights
Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center
DEDICATED TO: Muhammad Ali, America's great world champion of peace. Also dedicated to George Karsa,
who helped the author understand the truth regarding the plight of the Palestinian
population. Since before the days of the reprobate fanaticism of Senator Joe McCarthy,
mainstream media sources have consistently misrepresented and otherwise, deliberately distorted
and downplayed the plight of the Palestinian population. Consistently displaying extreme
bias towards U.S. backed militant Zionists, they deserve to be severely censured by the Nobel
committee and other literary organizations for ongoing deliberate distortion of the truth
for monetary gain.
Credits:
Based on Galatians 3:28; a paraphrase.
*FootNote: How twisted the self-justifying turns of history's bloody path, now pitting
Abraham against his own flesh and blood. For here at the beginning of the 21st Century,
we have Abraham from "Ur of the Chaldees", once located in modern-day Iraq, locked in a duel to
the death between his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, as self-proclaimed ‘God fearing’ onward
Christian soldier warmongering hypocrites of neo-conservative America go out to conquer and
destroy what this now famous humble sojourner once called his home. For whom now, will the
cracked corporation-corrupted bell of pseudo-liberty toll and for whom now will Rachel’s voice
in Ramah be heard?
The United States claims to be a beacon for democracy, liberty and justice for
all. Yet this same modern ‘enlightened’ nation continues to provide more military aid for
Israel than humanitarian aid for the entire continent of Africa, where millions of people are
currently literally starving to death. And while millions of her own people remain without
health care, jobless and homeless, the United States continues to go to war whenever her supply
of cheap oil is perceived to be the least bit threatened. The United States does not go to
war against countries in Africa, South America and elsewhere over gross Human Rights violations
and continues to ignore and often supports, dictatorships of tyranny among oil-less
nations. Yet the corporation beholding dishonest and misguided leadership of our country
claims to wage war only to protect the Human Rights and liberties of us all.
It has become political suicide to not back arms for Israel in the United States and
spineless preachers, priests and rabbis go right along with the utterly corrupt genocidal
program, fearing backlash from parishioners and peers if they dare speak
otherwise. Likewise, a wicked and soulless media, more concerned with advertising revenue
than exposing the truth, continues to misrepresent and deliberately deceive the American public
regarding the political reality and gross injustices of the current Palestinian
occupation. The tyrannical Zionist leaders of Israel, apparently no better than the
current globally myopic warmongering hypocritical Bush Junior administration, may indeed have
the backing and support of the U. S. media and the American conservative Christian
community. But it will be a cold day in hell before Israel's despicable leadership has
the backing of Jeremiah, Isaiah, King David and Abraham in their ongoing efforts to subjugate
and/or eliminate, the largely comparatively unarmed Palestinian population. "Ishmael"
means literally, "God hears"; apparently virtually no one else does.
**FootNote II: Many throw up their hands in dismay and claim there is no solution to the
Israeli/Palestinian problem. The truth is, the solution for this historically volatile
portion of the globe is the same as the solution necessary everywhere else. We need to
move away from destructive ideologies of "I, me, mine" toward the planetary solution of "this
land is OUR land." The true and correct political solution remains, to treat each other as
we ourselves, wish to be treated. As long as militant Zionists insist on enslaving the
Palestinian population, that is, as long as both Israelis and Palestinians do not both
experience a joint and equitable reality of Human and Civil Rights, we can expect nothing better
than war and rumor of war. Where people are subjugated and flagrantly oppressed, it is an
historical given that violence will eventually, if not immediately erupt. All parties
involved need to move away from what America, modern capitalism, modern conservative Christians
and other radical fundamentalist elements would do and move toward what Jesus would
do. Thus loudly speaks the lessons of the American Civil War and the Russian Revolution
and likewise, the Great Lesson coming down through history's bloody pages is clearly defined.
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