Doing Nothing
When I passed him near the bus stop
on Union Square while the cops
cuffed his hands behind his back, while he
said, “I didn’t do anything,”
I didn’t either,
do anything but look away,
a little afraid they might cuff me
if I paid too much attention,
and walked on still wondering
what he might’ve done
and still more what I
might’ve done.
Dan Gerber, Primer on Parallel Lives
What would you do?
Guatemalan poet, Otto Rene Castillo, who was killed by government
forces in the ambush of a guerrilla group in 1954 when President
Arbenz was overthrown by the US mercenaries, asked the same question:
[excerpt] ..... One day, the apolitical intellectuals
of my country will be interrogated
by the simplest of our people.
They will be asked what they did,
when their nation died out,
slowly,
like a sweet fire,
small and alone.
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4 comments:
Thank you for this.
One day, on the Staten Island ferry, I simply followed. A cop had, for no valid reason, drawn a gun on a young black man and apparently intended to book him on some trumped-up charge. Challenged by the cop, I said that I wanted to testify if any charges were brought against the young man. Wherever he took the young man, I followed, and, gradually, I acquired a small but highly visible group of fellow followers. Before the ferry docked, the cop let the young man go. When I later told another cop, a friend of mine, what had happened, he said I had done exactly the right thing.
Hi Keith -- Such important messages in both Gerber's and Castillo's words -- we have to ask ourselves this everyday and act on it too. Thanks, Keith.
:)
jesus would blog a new post dude. your fans are hungry.
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