2nd February 2003
Being There
***
-- / --
Remembrance
I was there...
- When leaders of democracy and freedom were extremely economical with the
truth
- When devout Christians sought God's aid to slaughter Muslims they had never
met
- When special military forces of the North engaged opponents with overwhelming
force
- When airforce pilots dropped WMD and were rewarded with a medal of honour
- When claims for evidence were made in defiance of centuries of scientific
and legal procedure
- When thousands were made homeless because the price was worth paying
- When bomblets were dropped disguised as emergency rations
- When respectable colleagues in every discipline refrained from public comment
- When trained interrogators of democracies engaged in unchecked torture
- When the United Nations was cynically perverted and corrupted to dubious
ends
- When government policy became too important for public consultation
- When associations supporting guns-for-citizens had the president's ear
- When other countries were encouraged to disarm by every means
- When official institutions became inherently untrustworthy
- When governments promoted panic in order to ensure support
- When democratic governments formally dispatched death squads to other countries
- When blatant government greed for oil was cynically cloaked in the highest
values
- Wen hard work of decades on many fronts was shredded without challenge
- When dissent from government policies was sanctioned as treason
- When heroes were those who beat up any they chose to suspect
- When all chose to forget dangerous historical parallels
- When project funding suddenly became subject to political allegiance
- When hit squads were dispatched to eliminate any form of opposition
- When God's name was invoked as justification for every form of abuse
- When considered intelligence service opinions were replaced by wishful thinking
- When planting and fabricating evidence was ignored as a possibility
- When allies formerly supplied with weaponry were transformed into enemies
- When abuses of long-standing allies were systematically tolerated and compensated
- When the trappings of democracy became a fraud for all to see
- When corporations claming respectability were revealed as dangerously flawed
- When only those with little to lose were willing to speak for those about
to die
- When religions failed to protest against acting violently in their name
- When unimaginative good guys fed on movies were trapped in bad scenarios
explored therein
- When dialogue with opponents was excluded in favour of slaughter
- When once again arms traders claimed innocence in supplying both sides
- When nations were stampeded into war to guarantee re-elections and campaign
debts
- When those most complicit in perversity acclaimed the possibility of business
as usual
- When leading insiders once again ensured their financial advantage from
war
- When cynicism prevailed concerning humanitarian response to the aftermath
- When perversion of good people and principles became the normal response
to the unsavoury
- When the wise in transcending polarization sought refugee in irresponsible
silence
- When dutiful soldiers were brainwashed into dishonourable combat
- When media reports on every side became high exercises in spin
- When the twisted initiatives of the "good" guys became more venal
than those of the "bad"
- When provoking undiscerning panic over terror became a weapon of mass distraction
- When concerns of the world's peoples were set aside by flailing governments
- When institutional leaders chose to live their lives in fear
...but I cannot remember what I did !
[More "poems"]