Like so many of you, I have been in agony watching the sprial of death and destruction ignited and fueled so expertly by George Bush, Dick Cheney and their willing executioners. I have struggled hard to find the words to express my grief -- somehow to speak and thereby expel if only a bit the sickness that has crept into and begun eating away at my soul as I watch my fellow humans suffer and die. Oh the loss of just one child is unbearable, unacceptable, yet it is being multiplied a thousand fold!
It suddenly struck me that an old XTC song speaks some of what I feel, what many feel I think. Read the lryics now as a stark poem that remains as true now about Bush and Blair as it was when written in 1989 about Reagan and Thatcher -- and cries out to indict those who claim justification for the unjustifiable.
Here comes President Kill again,
Surrounded by all of his killing men.
Telling us who, why, where and when,
President Kill wants killing again.
[Full poem in extended]
Here comes President Kill again,
Surrounded by all of his killing men.
Telling us who, why, where and when,
President Kill wants killing again.
Hooray, ring out the bells,
King Conscience is dead.
Hooray, now back in your cells,
We've President Kill instead.
Here comes President Kill again.
Broadcasting from his killing den.
Dressed in pounds and dollars and yen,
President Kill wants killing again.
Hooray, hang out the flags,
Queen Caring is dead.
Hooray, we'll stack body bags,
For President Kill instead.
Ain't democracy wonderful?
Them Russians can't win!
Ain't democracy wonderful?
Lets us vote someone like that in.
Here comes President Kill again,
from pure White House to Number 10.
Taking lives with a smoking pen,
President Kill wants killing again.
Hooray, everything's great,
Now President Kill is dead.
Hooray, I'll bet you can't wait,
To vote for President Kill instead...
-- XTC, President Kill, Oranges and Lemons
Will it ever be thus? Must it ever be thus?
When will we ever learn that there is never a good reason to kill. Only to love.
When will everyone have empathy for their fellow man. What if the bombs and bullets were going to your house and your family? How would you feel? Why can't everyone simply understand and act on this basic truth?
We, each of us, must do more to stop this madness. We must take to the streets, scream, cry, rail, petition, vote, beg, demand. Do something. Do it tomorrow. Do it every day.
Do it now.
We must stop this madness.
We are all obligated.
Our souls will suffer every moment we do not act, that we do not stop this insanity.