Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Reading: Pennsylvania


Next time you're spending some quality time in Pennsylvania, chat up a Presbyterin minister for fun. They're so nice. They're so concerned about social injustice and suffering. They say such pretty things. They do good work. Give them some money.

"Welcome to my park bench from which we can notice and discuss the traces and signs of God's presence and activity in the center of Tarentum, Pennsylvania. Have a seat. Relax and take a look around. Something big is happening, and you are invited to participate."
***

And in other news:

http://www.haaretz.com

Palestine After the Party

Amira Hass

The main headline in the Palestinian daily
newspaper Al-Ayyam on Wednesday, August 3, reported that a boy of 6 had been killed in the northern Gaza Strip and another 10 children had been wounded. The boy was defined as a "martyr" - a term that is usually reserved for people killed by the Israel Defense Forces and for suicide attackers. But this child was killed by the explosion of a "locally made" missile, as the report put it, a euphemism for a missile or mortar launched by a Palestinian cell.

The newspaper did not specify which organization was responsible for having launched the missile. The Hamas movement said it had no connection to it.Islamic Jihad hastened to deny that one of its cells was involved in the incident, but promised to hold back on firing its missiles until after the disengagement.

Ever since the Palestinians began to manufacture and launch locally produced missiles, about four years ago, most of the casualties they have inflicted - dead and wounded - have been Palestinian, and not Israeli. But up until recent weeks, these accidents were not given the prominence they are getting now.

The Palestinian media did not dare publish or
emphasize reports that would damage the myth of "the armed struggle" so conscientiously nurtured by the various television stations and the propaganda films of the various organizations.

The Palestinian media, in a way that is more direct and transparent than in the Western press, organize the "hierarchy" of their
headlines according to the preferences of the regime, according to how they interpret the public's tastes and the fears of the various power groups - thus reflecting a tendency to avoid debate on sensitive subjects.
***
Death isn't all doom and gloom. No, death is a good thing. If you don't believe it you could always ask a Presbyterian minister in
Tarentum, Pennsylvania, United States. Just hang out on a park bench and wait for one. He'll tell you everything you need to know. In the meantime, read some poetry to pass the time.
***

Creature of dust, child of God,
transplant to Western Pennsylvania,
and pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Tarentum.
***

"A letter from a Shahid to his Mother"
By Abdul Badi Iraq
"My Dear Mother,
...I wrapped my body with determination, with hopes and with bombs.

I asked [reaching] towards Allah and the fighting homeland.
The [explosive] belt makes me fly, strengthens me to make haste.
I calm it [the explosive], we should stay steadfast, we have not yet reached.
I freed/launched myself; I freed/launched myself, [detonated myself] like lava burning old legends and vanity,
I freed/launched my body, all my pains and oppression, towards the packs of beasts...
I freed/launched, oh mother, freed the chains and the shackles.

And you found me rising and rising like a candle that was lit with precious olive oil.
And you saw me sending a loving kiss above the mosques and the churches, the houses and the roads.
Flocks of pigeons flew above the porches
And Al-Aksa smiled and gave me a sign that we will not sleep.

Dawn is close, oh mother, and it shall rise from the guns, from the shining spears
It will be lit from a bloody wound...
The wedding is the wedding of the land.
Sound a cry of joy, oh mother, I am the groom..."
***

It's not illegal for smug and sanctimonious self-righteous poseurs dressed up in their best Dan Brown outfits to encourage young women to travel to Israel to protest "occupation." It's not illegal for ministers in Pennsylvania to get girls to travel to the Middle East to "defend the rights of the oppressed." It's not illegal to put young people at risk of physical and emotional harm if one is a minister in Pennsylvania and the child is "over there." It's not illegal, but it is criminal.

The chasm between the illegal and the criminal is as wide and deep as the chasm between law and justice. We settle for law and hope for justice at least some times, knowing it will not always happen as it should. In a just world, "You rippa dees, you menna dees." But the fabric of society is made of law, and Euripides' Eumenides are creatures we leave in the deepest of our darkest recesses.

In a just world criminals would hang from every street lamp. Pennsylvania would be less beautiful but a far, far better place than it is today. However, we must accept that there are in this world, among us in our cities and towns, men and women who want nothing more than their own for themselves at whatever cost to others. Their vanity exceeds all Human decency, and they do not care. Had they but one hour to pack up and leave before a crowd of men and women enraged by their behaviour they'd spend most of that time packing their tweed jackets and perfume bottles. But who will go with them? Reverend Everyman, No One will go with thee.

And yet these vain little monsters of the Presbyterian Church of the USA think themselves the finest of people. It's up to the congregants of the church to decide if they wish to carry on with the current lot and the evil of enticing young women into aiding and abetting the murder of children. The dhimmi fascism of the poseur Presbyterian ministers is such an obvious evil that one would expect them out of simple shame to hurl themselves into the fire. There is no justice. One can only hope that the laws of common decency play some part in the lives of men and women in a position to withhold money from these people who create the milieu in which psychosis is the norm, in which inciting children to murder is celebrated, in which death is the ultimate reason for living. The ministers aren't suffering from the evil they do, not because no one is punishing them but because they have no feeling to begin with. These are the hollow men leaning together. They will end, not with a bang, dear reader, but whimpering.

1 comment:

John Sobieski said...

Is that the cover of the Arabic version of Mein Kampf? Interesting. I'm going to go to the library and see if I can get a copy of Mein Kampf. I've never read it.