who are the soldiers of the poor? shouts the activist silence screams back who fights for the rich? the poor fight and die for them when the rich go to war the poor carry the fight the soldiers of the rich are many pawns on an endless board the poor has no army only an army of ideals an army of the mind ideas are peaceful history is violent
© 2016 Michael D Emmerich
draft or dodge conscription or jail exile or war hero traitor or coward choices that define or break who is the enemy the just or unjust war justified by the church who stands aside letting death slip quietly by welcoming death in gods name it shall be done who chose this war justified by the politician arrogance greed and power forcing boys to become men to become killers for the sake of an ‘ism, as told by an idiot who has the most to lose who binds the wounds that bleed the scars that don’t heal the wounds you cannot see none but the fellow beside him neither the church or politicians in whose name their blood is discarded along with their futures whose life is to be sacrificed not mine said the politician, suckling on the teat of corporate greed not mine said the bishop, god made me do it not mine said the arms dealer, I just sell death not mine said the general, I’ve done my time not mine said the wealthy, the poor are the pawns not mine said the socialite, I’ll read it on page seven who has the most to gain At whose cost At what cost WHY? FUCK WAR!
© 2016 Michael D Emmerich
Trust none of what you hear, and less of what you see
Bruce Springsteen – Magic, 2007
trust openness honesty who to trust what to trust deception deceit seen through a veil now hidden obscured mists clouds no rainbows no pots of gold hollow men hollow words blind men blind followers fire below fire above eyes wired shut ears grown closed mouths wide open no sound no trust just white noise
© 2016 Michael D Emmerich
history written by the victorious
remembered by the soldier
forgotten by all
battered, bruised, discarded
honour cast aside
no medals for the forgotten warrior
once forgotten
memories now return
new wounds emerge
new scars
new pain and guilt
but still society forgets
wars once popular
now become an anathema
silence abounds
but the memories remain
history written in black
but remembered in blood
history written in scars
survives beyond the fading text
politicians write the history
soldiers carry the weight of that history
what makes one free the ability to have no cares carry no baggage freedom to move when are we most free when we have no stress when we are able to just be when we have a choice when can we escape why do we want to escape to what are we escaping the fire or the frying pan is not the greatest escape the ability to escape regardless true freedom even it be to grass less green the fire is warmer than the frying pan maybe some of us take solace in its heat
© 2016 Michael D Emmerich
we don’t live her anymore we have since moved on the vacant and to let signs are posted we have no forwarding address we have moved on to another place to call home we are following in the footsteps of our ancestors and yours! they were welcomed with open arms we welcomed them with open arms why do we find the doors closed and signs saying move along nothing to see or do here no place for the refugee, the immigrant no place for those who look different no place for a fellow human being our home becomes the street the tented shelter we don’t live anywhere anymore we have no where to call home so alone
© 2016 Michael D Emmerich
values, ethics, morals are left in tatters
conveniently sacrificed on the alter of economic greed
moral responsibility is abdicated in fiscal matters
bruised and cast aside for their misdeeds
it's not me, just following orders
it's not my department
I was just the warder
its all in separate compartments
careers built on careerism and obedience
orders coming from persons above
no regard for others, expedience
non ideological, and no thought of the actions thereof
as good as saying the devil made me do it
its gods will
the cry of the uncaring hypocrite
is enough to give the victim a chill
as the the chorus beats its drum
and the new song cuts to the core
the new mantra now oft chanted has become
oh for a few dollars more
With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil;
but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.
Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg
The day we as a global nation choose to live for causes and not support ones that are worth dying for; will truly be a great day. Sadly it is a long way off. It will take tolerance and peace having to become more sacred than dogma and blind unquestioning arrogance for that to occur. When questions can be asked without having to fear for ones life, or risk being shouted down in the name of some religion…as they fear the questions (or maybe it is the answers the fear), that will be a day to treasure.
The religions that dominate our world today are made up of fossilized dogmas, that have been excavated from the mud of our past. They hale from a by-gone era when man created religion in an attempt to better understand his world. We now have science, evidence based research and rational questioning minds, which is the antithesis of many religions. This bygone dogma was forged in a world and culture so foreign to the one we live in today, but yet those beliefs are still held as sacrosanct and untouchable. As a result of this outdated dogma, evil deeds are allowed to breed, not by distorting or changing the teachings of scripture, but by obeying them. There is much material in every religious tradition that teaches violence, intolerance and hatred.
When a person believes, truly believes, that they know God’s will, they become almost impossible to reason with. Scientific research and evidence is thrown out along with rational thinking and the bath water. This is because most religions teach that faith – belief not supported by evidence – is not just acceptable but commendable, and is the sign of a virtuous person. Reasoning with a person in the light of the above becomes nigh impossible, as religious morality is not grounded in humans needs and desires, but in the will of god. Beliefs that weren’t based on evidence to begin with usually can’t be changed by evidence. Hence religious faith becomes very dangerous; when a religious believer chooses a course of action that’s evil or harmful, efforts to persuade them to stop will be futile. After all, if God has told them to follow a certain path, any opinion to the contrary is the devils work, and must be resisted, forcefully if needs be.
Religious leaders (and many of their followers), from all religions; oppose abortion, birth control, gay adoption, same-sex marriage, woman’s rights, euthanasia, to mention but a few — they want to control how people are born, marry, raise families, how they die, who they vote for, what to eat/not eat and which wars to fight. They want to barge into ones life during our most private moments and impose neigh, force and demand an adherence to their rigid, paternalistic creed. They know best how life should be lived, they have no qualms in seeking to intrude upon the lives of others at the most important and personal of moments.
Differentiating the evil that religion can perpetuate and the goodness in some people who practice religion seems fair up to a point, but how can one, for example, be both Catholic and good given the Vatican’s hundreds of years of torturing and murder, and currently, its favoring image over children? It is akin to being a good Nazi, which is exactly what its pope believes himself to be. When you base your “faith” in books that brim with divine violence, like the Old Testament, doesn’t that lead to more violence, at least in the defense of your “faith”
Sadly religion is never about what humans really need, but about what “god” supposedly needs humans to believe and do. The fact that religion is not about human needs is exactly what makes religion so pernicious. In other words, no matter what you believe, you do not have the right to hurt or curtail the rights of others, or to disproportionately benefit yourself at the expense of others.
It’s a far nobler a pursuit to wrestle with questions of ethics than to evade our responsibility and just parrot edicts that were written down thousands of years ago. It’s too easy to not have to really think about the consequences of our actions when we can just point to a book and say “but God said so.” We don’t understand maths because we take it on faith, in all other realms of our universe, we do not use faith as means of understanding its inner workings. Leaving it to faith is coping out, and it is the same as throwing up our hands and saying I don’t need to know, and deciding that some higher power will reveal all to us in good time. In my opinion, that stance does not get us any further as a species. It only leaves us standing still; unable to progress and make life better for everyone.
In closing let me end with a philosophical statement… which turned into a religious statement … and then totally ignored by religions…
‘Do unto others what you want done unto you.’
Confucius
557 BC, From the Analects 15:23
“One should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated.”
3200 BC, From the Hitopadesa
a wind is sweeping the land no wait, across our planet the wind blows through the halls of power no country is sacrosanct mediocrity our new political watchword on a good day! on every other day we would be considered blessed to have mediocre leaders the wind of the bigot the ignorant the illiterate autocrat blows with vigour no stone left unturned all that stand in the way bashed, broken, ripped apart theocracy takes flight the hot air of idiocy blows with venom from the open gaping vacuous mouths of our elected leaders even when they are eloquently hoisted on their own petard their praise singers and chorus lines run to the fore like court jesters of old the halls are silent laughter is absent intentions are real, deceitful wrestling power and control from the blind electorate who have realised to late the error of their ballot cross has now become a cross they cannot bear
© 2015 michael d emmerich
rain falling, mist rising, darkness beckons. I clamber out of bed to join the red light train bare feet on a cold concrete floor soon shod feet on a metal pedal as you push down, to join the red light train cresting the dark hill the train stretches out before you you latch onto the back sometimes with care other times with annoyance so begins your day, for most, so begins everyday the train has life and pace of its own each day is a new train, always dynamic, ever-changing it moves at its own unique pace like a slinky, up and over the rolling hills expanding and contracting moving at the pace of the slowest Like life... the train does not encourage one to look beyond the red lights getting on and off causes frustration, it takes time, patience and determination once you commit, you're hooked that's why it's refreshing to not ride the train everyday Like life..... one needs change, new challenges, new trains a chance to ride the rails alone, breaking new ground create your own red light train trail-blaze your own path create new uncharted rails be your own red light train driving into a new sunrise
© 2015 Michael D Emmerich
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