Thinking About Borders. And Laws. And Fear

I'm feeling in need of some fine poetry this evening.  For your viewing pleasure I offer the following:


                        Confession

The Nazi within me thinks it's time to take charge.
The world's a mess; people are crazy.
The Nazi within me wants windows shut tight,
new locks put on the doors.  There's too much
fresh air, too much coming and going.
The Nazi within me wants more respect.  He wants
the only TV camera, the only bank account,
the only really pretty girl.  The Nazi within me
wants to be boss of traffic and traffic lights.
People drive too fast; they take up too much space.
The Nazi within me thinks people are getting away
with murder.  He wants to be boss of murder.
He wants to be boss of bananas, boss of white bread.
The Nazi within me wants uniforms for everyone.
He wants them to wash their hands, sit up straight,
pay strict attention.  He wants to make certain
they say yes when he says yes, no when he says no.
He imagines everybody sitting in straight chairs,
people all over the world sitting in straight chairs.
Are you ready? he asks them.  They say they are ready.
Are you ready to be happy? he asks them.  The say
they are ready to be happy.  The Nazi within me wants
everyone to be happy but not too happy and definitely
not noisy.  No singing, no dancing, no carrying on.

                                           --Stephen Dobyns

Today's front yard critter count:
Deer: 0
Raccoons: 0

Grifters and Pundits

My friend Ginger alerted me to the latest incident of Fox News brazenly falsifying what the network humorously refers to as "the news."  This time the whopper concerned President Obama's nuclear arms treaty with Russia -- evidently Fox reported that the treaty leaves America defenseless by eliminating all nuclear weapons when, in fact, the treaty leaves two thirds of the weapons unaffected.  As despicable as this sort of counterfeit reporting is, the dance of deception requires two partners -- the grifter and the easy mark.  It's apparent what the deceivers get out of the transaction: power, money, the win, the sly superiority of the liar.  But what do the willfully deceived get?  They get to escape.  They (and by the term "they," I sometimes mean "me') get to escape knowledge of the truth.  Knowledge, and the responsibility that comes with knowledge -- the responsibility to be accountable, to risk one's own preconceived notions, prejudices, and comfort, in the interest of what is true and good.  If we want this flight from accountability, the dance of deception requires us to pretend to believe what the network pretends is the news.

Where is Samaria Anyway?

Like a passing motorist who can't drag her eyes away from a bad accident, I continue to watch with astonishment the more feverish reactions to health care reform playing out across America. What I find most puzzling are people who call themselves Christian but nonetheless seem to have forgotten the Parable of the Good Samaritan and similar mandates to care for the oppressed and the stranger.   If faced with a gravely ill child in their workplace, neighborhood or church, even the most vehement health care opponents would probably throw a bake sale or pass the hat to pay for treatment.  Is the problem an inability or unwillingness to make the empathetic leap from a child in their own tribe to a child in another tribe? Or do they just love their tribe more than they love their God?  I'm mystified.

I don't have a parable to share, but I do have a poem from the most excellent Wendell Berry.  I offer especially the last stanza.

              Questionnaire


1. How much poison are you willing
    to eat for the success of the free
    market and global trade? Please
    name your preferred poisons.

2. For the sake of goodness, how much
    evil are you willing to do?
    Fill in the following blanks
    with the names of your favorite
    evils and acts of hatred.

3. What sacrifices are you prepared
    to make for culture and civilization?
    Please list the monuments, shrines,
    and works of art you would
    most willingly destroy.

4. In the name of patriotism and
    the flag, how much of our beloved
    land are you willing to desecrate?
    List in the following spaces
    the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
    you could most readily do without.

5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
    the energy sources, the kinds of security,
    for which you would kill a child.
    Name, please, the children whom
    you would be willing to kill.


Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 6
Deer: 1
Llamas: 0