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Do not keep silent in the face of US and Israeli crimesBy Paul J. Balles* 27 January 2008 Paul J. Balles reminds those who keep silent in the face of crimes, whether by Israel, the USA or some other, that eventually their silence may rebound on them with a vengeance. In a poem by Maurice Ogden, a hangman comes to town and builds a scaffold in front of the courthouse. The poem's narrator says: And we wondered whenever we had the time, Who the criminal? What the crime? Till one cried, "Hangman, who is he, for whom you raised the gallows-tree?" Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye and he gave a riddle instead of reply. "He who serves me best," said he Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree." And he stepped down and laid his hand on a man who came from another land. So we gave him way and no one spoke out of respect for his hangman’s cloak. After hanging the "alien", the hangman stayed in the village and told the people that he was there for more than the alien. "Do you think I've gone to all this fuss, to hang one man? That's the thing I do." One voice said "Shame" and the hangman hung him. After that no one spoke out of fear. Next he hung a "usurer", a Jew, and then a black, and then another and another until everyone in the village was gone except the hangman and the narrator. Just before hanging the narrator, the hangman says: "First the alien ... then the Jew. I did no more than you let me do." At one time or another, the hangman's prey in America have been native Indians, Mexicans, Jews, blacks, southerners, British, Germans, Italians, Irish, Japanese, Communists, North Vietnamese, North Koreans, anti-war protesters, Serbians, Russians, civil rights protesters, and now, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. As one commentator has said, "The poem can be seen as an indictment of those who stand idly by while others commit grave evil or injustice, such as The Holocaust or McCarthyism." That being the case, many should be indicted for standing idly by while:
Paul Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for 38 years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com. Copyright © Redress Information & Analysis. All rights reserved. |
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