Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Sep 8, 2010 8:12 AM PDT
This essay is dedicated to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, whose marvelous portrayal of disaffected lovers in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? shocked, delighted and discomfited audiences around America who were often all too familiar with the dark subject matter.
The situation in Israel and occupied Palestine is analogous to a marriage that broke up many generations ago in a separation so bitter that relatives in the Semitic families involved have declared a deadly family feud that will not end until they either destroy each other or the world. In Virginia Woolf, the couple stayed together despite their vicious attacks on each other, for reasons that are never clear. One has to suspect that there was love and pain behind the anger, somehow strong enough to bind this man and woman locked in eternal combat.
A more lighthearted depiction of the eternal struggle between dual natures within the Eternal One is the movie Hancock, which features the awakening of an immortal and his discovery of his own nature. He becomes aware of the presence of his soul mate, who has married and is living in his hometown.
This powerfully attracted couple had tried over the eons to live together but she had realized that doing so weakened both of them, so she took advantage of his loss of memory after a severe blow to the head and got as far away from him as she could until fate or God brought them back together generations later. The result was that he became aware of his responsibility to use his powers for good and aware of his ability to wreak havoc if he acts rashly. With her help, he became the superhero he was meant to be.
This powerfully attracted couple had tried over the eons to live together but she had realized that doing so weakened both of them, so she took advantage of his loss of memory after a severe blow to the head and got as far away from him as she could until fate or God brought them back together generations later. The result was that he became aware of his responsibility to use his powers for good and aware of his ability to wreak havoc if he acts rashly. With her help, he became the superhero he was meant to be.
When a critical mass of humanity understands that it is the role of each of us individually and collectively to save the planet from self-destruction, our will is going to be done on Earth. There are thousands of good men and women for every soul-seared international corporate war profiteer.
When enough of us have realized that our purpose on Earth is to build a loving, self-sustaining world society, we will remake our governments into our own image. Democratic governments are created by, for and of free Peoples and exist to serve them. They cannot serve the interests of soulless corporate entities at the same time. Adolph Hitler and Milton Friedman are gone and soon Cheney will be dead. Let fascism die with them.
When enough of us have realized that our purpose on Earth is to build a loving, self-sustaining world society, we will remake our governments into our own image. Democratic governments are created by, for and of free Peoples and exist to serve them. They cannot serve the interests of soulless corporate entities at the same time. Adolph Hitler and Milton Friedman are gone and soon Cheney will be dead. Let fascism die with them.
The families of the Semitic clans have committed horrible crimes against each other, but when Muslims ruled in the Caliphates there were peace, prosperity and justice for all under the law. Too many Muslims have forgotten that this was the Prophet Mohammed’s intent and therefore by their beliefs God’s wish, according to the angel Gabriel who delivered its message to the prophet.
As for the Israelis, they took advantage of shock and anger at the Holocaust to create a society that exists solely for the benefit of its citizens, who they are now defining in increasingly narrow terms under the law. It is important for them to make mulatto-like distinctions in their laws to maintain the system of apartheid they use to justify the theft of the land and water used by Palestinians living in the Holy Land before most of them were born.
The key to peace in the Mideast is not to broker a deal between the Quisling government of Abbas in the West Bank and the thoroughly untrustworthy Netanyahu coalition. The key is to be found in the human heart that beats in the chest of every Semite and in every man, women and child with whom we share our sacred planet.
As usual, it is the subjugated who must lead the fight for justice, laying down their arms first so that the Israeli government has no excuse to crush their other cheeks with its jackboots. They can unlock the prison of their nation and free themselves only through the power of their love for Allah, who bid them be merciful and forgiving to all Mankind.
The greater the sin, the more powerful are the acts of forgiveness and of atonement must be made by both sides. May the synagogues be filled on Yom Kippur with repentant Israelis and all places of worship be filled by their American allies in the crimes each has committed for selfish reasons in the name of God and country.
As usual, it is the subjugated who must lead the fight for justice, laying down their arms first so that the Israeli government has no excuse to crush their other cheeks with its jackboots. They can unlock the prison of their nation and free themselves only through the power of their love for Allah, who bid them be merciful and forgiving to all Mankind.
The greater the sin, the more powerful are the acts of forgiveness and of atonement must be made by both sides. May the synagogues be filled on Yom Kippur with repentant Israelis and all places of worship be filled by their American allies in the crimes each has committed for selfish reasons in the name of God and country.
If Hamas renounces violence and effectively deals with terrorism within the present borders of Gaza, Israel will have no excuse to continue to claim the billions of dollars annually in American taxes as their God-given right. Fear alone is not an excuse for naked aggression in man,only in animals.
Politicians like Ron Wyden, a son of Holocaust survivors who eagerly takes the money of AIPAC and other pro-Israeli government front groups must no longer be rewarded for endangering Israel. In supporting their vicious attacks on Gazan men, women and children in acts of collective punishment forbidden by the Geneva Conventions Wyden, Lieberman and others are putting our courageous peace activist friends in Israel at greater risk. Every time Israel commits a war crime, the rest of the world grows angrier, terrorism rises and my friends in Israel who are trying to help their countrymen to see reason are less secure.
Politicians like Ron Wyden, a son of Holocaust survivors who eagerly takes the money of AIPAC and other pro-Israeli government front groups must no longer be rewarded for endangering Israel. In supporting their vicious attacks on Gazan men, women and children in acts of collective punishment forbidden by the Geneva Conventions Wyden, Lieberman and others are putting our courageous peace activist friends in Israel at greater risk. Every time Israel commits a war crime, the rest of the world grows angrier, terrorism rises and my friends in Israel who are trying to help their countrymen to see reason are less secure.
We know that peace is possible because we saw it in Medieval Spain during the 800 years of the Caliphate before invaders professing to be Christian destroyed this Ornament of the World, killing once more in the name of Christ. Other representatives of the Catholic Church did the same in Jerusalem, spurred on by the mad Pope Urban who was taking advantage of anger at the burning of the Church of the Holy Sepelchure in Jerusalem by an equally insane Caliph of the time. Thus did two worlds collide and the beginning of the End ensued.
Christian and Muslim worldviews have diverged and been perverted into opposites rather than the complementary philosophies Jesus, Mohammed and Abraham promoted. Hitler used the ancient crime of the Quisling Sanhedrin government in Judea as an excuse to attempt genocide against the Jews. In response, Jews used terrorism in a futile effort to establish a homeland that would be forever exclusively Jewish.
Israel is backed by the government of a country that had no use for them when they were in need during and after WWII. Now fundamentalist Christians are divided between those rooting for Israel and the American government to hasten Armageddon and those like Mel Gibson who forgot that Jesus taught us to forgive those who know not what they do and who want to see Israel pay a price in blood for what their ancestors did to Jesus.
Israel is backed by the government of a country that had no use for them when they were in need during and after WWII. Now fundamentalist Christians are divided between those rooting for Israel and the American government to hasten Armageddon and those like Mel Gibson who forgot that Jesus taught us to forgive those who know not what they do and who want to see Israel pay a price in blood for what their ancestors did to Jesus.
Peace is possible in the Mideast when every Jew, Muslim and Christian believes that it is. We cannot expect to achieve what we believe to be impossible. We cannot allow our doubts and fears to overwhelm our logic if we care about the legacy we leave for future generations. Achieving peace requires nothing more than to treat all men and women as equally deserving of the love, mercy and justice of the God we all wish to believe in. What if God were all of us? How will we judge ourselves if we let permanent war become accepted as an unavoidable reality for all time?
In the immortal words of Led Zeppelin:
And if you feel that you can't go on and your will's sinkin' low,
just believe and you can't go wrong.
In the light, you will find the road.
You will find the road.
Oh, did you ever believe that I could leave you, standing out in the cold?
I know how it feels 'cause I have slipped through to the very depths of my soul.
Baby, I just want to show you what a clear view it is from every bend in the road.
Now listen to me:
Oh, whoa-whoa, as I was and really would be for you too, honey.
As you would for me oh, I would share your load.
Let me share your load. Ooh, let me share, share your load.
And if you feel that you can't go on,
in the light you will find the road.
Though the winds of change may blow around you, but that will always be so.
When love is pain it can devour you, if you are never alone.
I would share your load. I would share your load.
Baby, let me, oh, let me
In the light…
Everybody needs the light.
In the light, in the light, in the light.
Light, light, light, in the light.
Light, light, light, in the light, ooh, yeah
Light, light, light, in the light.
Rick Staggenborg, MD
Sawyer Rapids, Oregon
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