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A PRAYER FOR OUR GRIEF AND SHAME
I feel sad today ~for I feel and sense the collective grief of our nation in coming face to face with the evil we have wrought in Iraq.
As Williams River Pitt said " We have institutionalized revenge and made it the basis of our policy and war with Iraq " ~ and all of us are suffering from this decision.
Revenge dehumanizes our innate goodness and nobility but when it happens collectively ~ it can bring a nation to its knees.
It is at times like this that poetry, and only poetry, can strike the
chord beneath the words and resonate as a prayer for our grief. The poem is by Al Staggs but the feelings are ours.
Allen L Roland
Spirituality of Grief
The Pall of Grief
has found a home in my spirit of late.
It has become my Spirituality.
Sorrow has become a daily thing
that cannot be assuaged or find relief.
Sorrow over my nation
whose policies have become evil.
Sorrow over its leader whose unjust decisions
have brought discredit to his office
and to our standing in the world.
I sorrow for my flag
the symbol for which millions have purchased
at the highest cost.
The Stars and Stripes have been tarnished
and made to mean something that is foreign
to its ideal.
I grieve for young men and women
who have committed their lives
to carry out the orders of their Commander-in-Chief
who has lost his way, lost his soul.
Seeing the young faces of these lives who’ve foregone
their lives and their futures to a cause
that has only given the world death and destruction.
I grieve for Iraqis
who have endured the violation of their sovereignty
and suffered incalculable loss of life, property and dignity.
Hearing news of the deaths of thousands of women,
children and men
at the hands of our forces.
Their deaths and their casualties
plunges me deeper into ever greater grief
and rage.
Their deaths and casualties have never been counted
because they do not count, to us.
We know nothing of God
We know nothing of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
We have become Demons of Death.
I grieve for those who know and yet are silent
Their silence condemns them and us
and gives assent to those who wage this war.
We have become what we most feared.
We have become the Terrorists
and unleashed this endless cycle of violence.
I grieve for my Faith,
for the words of scripture
that have been omitted from our church sermons
and left to remain mute in the crisis we face.
I grieve for the One whose Name I profess
and cannot understand those who also
profess that Name and yet support our
Campaign of Deadly Terror
Yet they do, enthusiastically, openly,
while indoctrinating their large flocks
on the ‘merits’ of our nation’s Hellish work.
The Reich Kirche has been reborn in our century
Grieving at the misuse of my Faith
I also Rage.
If all I knew of Jesus
was what these ‘National Prophets’ profess
I could never be a Christian.
Grieving has become my Spirituality
In the Spirit of the Prophets who Grieved over their people
In the Spirit of Jesus who grieved over Jerusalem.
I grieve for my people
And the people of Iraq
And the ideals we have smeared
In our contract with Evil.
Al Staggs
alstaggs@swbell.net
Catch Allen on radio every Monday / TRUTHTALK
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