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WindWalker
Senior Member

since 2001-10-12

Posts 1218

0 posted 2008-09-11 11:12 AM

The Forgotten Ones

We react with horror and sadness
as innocent people die of terrorist attack
in the back yard of a “world power”
but do not feel the much greater horror
of systematic oppression of smaller nations
at the hands of the bully – and I ask “why?”

Economic policies starve entire countries
and children die from lack of food and water;
lands are raped of resources, impoverished
while their leaders are well fed and healthy
because they do the bully’s bidding;
the people wander naked, sick, hungry...
and we who live in the bully’s back yard
do not feel, and cannot feel, and I ask “why?”

In third and fourth world countries,
most don’t live beyond thirty,
because the fat of the land is taken
to the land of the free and the home of the brave;
and I ask about those who die in natural disasters:
I don’t even bother asking where God’s love is,
but where is our natural compassion
and our sense of outrage in all of this?
Is it all reserved for ourselves and our friends
and our sacred beliefs about the rightness of our cause?

Where is the collective compassion
for these thousands who die daily around the world?
Who die, we so well know, of preventable causes?
Where is that five minutes of silence in memory
of those who ensure we keep our abundance?
From the dust of the earth their voices, not silent yet,
cry to us to remember their sacrifice...
but we want to silence their cries for justice;
we want them to remain the forgotten ones –
otherwise, how could we justify our indignation?
We’ve always had someone to pay for our extravagance
are we to give up our favored status in God’s eyes?

Robert E. Jordan
Member Rara Avis

since 2008-01-25

Posts 8541
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1 posted 2008-09-11 11:42 AM

Yo WindWalker,

This is a good write well done.

The "Bully" doesn't even properly take care of its own.

Bobby

TheAnonDavid
Member

since 2008-08-28

Posts 237
UK

2 posted 2008-09-11 03:31 PM

You ask the questions that all intelligent people should be asking themselves. Unfortunately, too many people only live for themselves and for today. Many people say that the poorer nations need educating; as this poem indicates so well, it is the richer nations that need the education.

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas

Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis

since 2007-09-16

Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California

3 posted 2008-09-12 10:13 PM

I feel for them all and wish no harm to anyone. The question is, Will we, the human race, evolve to a point where we love and care for each other or not? Hope so.
Ida

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

4 posted 2008-09-13 10:52 AM

Yes, we will, Ida, if WindWalker and others keep saying things like this. We need to keep talking, thinking and acting on it.

Good poem, WindWalker.

- Owl

secondhanddreampoet
Member Ascendant

since 2006-11-07

Posts 6394
a 'Universalist' !

5 posted 2008-09-16 07:46 PM

I hope many more folk will read and comment on this 'write'!

much applause for the 'penning' and the points made therein!

Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

6 posted 2008-09-16 08:08 PM

quote:
Economic policies starve entire countries
and children die from lack of food and water;
lands are raped of resources, impoverished
while their leaders are well fed and healthy
because they do the bully’s bidding

Exactly.
Thank you for writing this one, WW.

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