“…Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me
Well I met a man out in Hollywood [wherever]
Now I ain't naming names
Well he really worked me over good
Just like Jesse James
Yes he really worked me over good
He was a credit to his gender
Put me through some changes Lord
Sort of like a Waring blender…”
“Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” – Warren Zevon
…And, woe, woe, woe are WE. Is God, Allah, Yahwey. Is Islam. Are Muslims, Christians, Jews, everyone. Are the good. TO “JIHADIS” EVERYWHERE, LISTEN UP:
You are not Muslims. You hurt Islam. You hurt God. You hurt all the Prophets. ANY “JIHAD” MUST BE AGAINST YOU; FOR YOU ARE THE TRUE ENEMIES OF ISLAM, OF GOD, OF LOVE; FOR GOD IS LOVE, IS CREATION, NOT DESTRUCTION. STOP MISINTERPRETING THE QU’RAN. STOP INSINUATING YOUR POVERTY OF THOUGHT, “REASON,” HATRED INTO THE WORDS OF MUHAMMED, INTO THE “INTENTIONS” OF GOD. YOU ARE A BLIGHT UPON GOD’S WORLD. YOU DO NOT “DEFEND” ISLAM. YOU HURT ISLAM AND OUR MUSLIM BROTHERS AND SISTERS EVERYWHERE. YOU HURT EVERYONE AND ALL RELIGIONS. YOU DEFILE CREATION WITH YOUR DESTRUCTION. YOU HURT GOD.
Radicalization. It used to mean “becoming extreme, radical in ideology,” NOT “mission creep” into violent action. THERE IS NO “MISSION
IF THESE BOYS WON’T LET YOU BE, IF ANYONE IS TELLING YOU THEY HEAR GOD TELLING THEM TO RECRUIT PEOPLE TO DO HARM, YOU MUST, MUST KNOW THEY ARE MENTALLY ILL AND NEED MEDICATION, NOT PROLIFERATION OF THEIR PROFANE IDEAS THEY WANT YOU TO ACTUALIZE, TO ACT OUT.
IF YOU ARE ANGRY, LOST, GO TO THERAPY, DO NOT SEEK OUT THOSE WHO WOULD PLAY TO YOUR BASEST INSTINCTS. SEEK PEACE. IF YOU SEEK SOME KIND OF VENGEANCE YOU WRONGLY PROSCRIBE TO ANY RELIGION, UNDERSTAND THAT THE HOLY BOOKS OF ALL THE MAJOR RELIGIONS STATE THAT “GOD SAYS, ‘VENGEANCE IS MINE,’” NOT YOURS. THERE ARE OTHER GREAT TRUTHS THAT ALL MAJOR RELIGIONS AND SANE PEOPLE ASCRIBE TO: “THOU SHALT NOT KILL… LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF…IF YOU SEE A MOTE IN ANOTHER’S EYE, LOOK INTO YOUR OWN…HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN, CAST THE FIRST STONE…”
NO ONE, NO RELIGION, NO IDEOLOGY IS SERVED BY VIOLENCE. IF YOU ACT VIOLENTLY IN THE NAME OF ANY RELIGION OR PHILOSOPHY, YOU ACT AGAINST YOURSELVES AND ALL OTHERS.
In other words, your actions backfire. And all you serve to do is unleash an UNGODLY moment of anarchy, and God weeps. As the great poet, William Butler
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity…”
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity…”
…The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towardsBethlehem
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards
We are all tempest-tossed, turning and turning in the widening gyre. We all have tear-stained, broken dreams. We all are hurt, are human, are vulnerable. In our human condition, our pain, and, through our vulnerability, we learn lessons, find strength, hope, faith, and we go on. We suffer dreams deferred or defeated--yours as well as ours. We all suffer when one among us, among humanity suffers. We suffer for the women who are raped, beaten, burned, killed. We suffer for the men, women, and children in poverty, in hunger, in danger, in despair, in ALL countries. We suffer over injustice. BUT, WE ACT IN CONSTRUCTIVE WAYS TO SEEK HEALING, ALLEVIATION. WE DO NOT BOMB, MAIM, DESTROY. DO NOT CONFUSE US—EVERYWHERE, ANYWHERE—WITH THE ACTIONS OF GOVERNMENTS; FOR WE ARE INDIVIDUALS WORKING COLLECTIVELY, PEACEABLY FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE, UNIVERSALLY.
Yes, the worst ARE full of passionate intensity. Read “worst” as all of those whose “convictions” wreak havoc: Republicans, Evangelists, “Crusaders” for anything against humanity, the human condition, and who all seem to co-opt GOD as their back-up guy. YOU. We cannot afford, nor must we allow, mere anarchy to be loosed upon the world. We will not swim in blood-dimmed tides. We will all be bloodied by the acts of those with such HUBRIS as to think they know what God wants. What you, politicians, evangelists, extremists, “jihadis” want is POWER, and it is more illusion, delusion than real. True power is not pitched to a wail. It does not need to be. It can be quiet. It can be humble. It can only be humane, as it must be just.
The Poverty of Power. Those seeking it are in need. Those trying to hold it are in the grasp of the elusive. And centuries of sleep, the “not knowing” of the kind of evil that wants to be all-powerful, that steals children, that makes them forget their humanity, their place, a holier, humane purpose to life, has been vexed to nightmare by the rocking cradle you once lay in, rough beast, until you grew into ability, and went stumbling to Hell, not Bethlehem.
Poor, Poor Pitiful You.
