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Rolla Peace News December 28, 2023 |
Dear Friends:Editor's notes:In this newsletter is: 1. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) Reflections on the Massacre of the Holy Innocents I had thought about making the newsletter I wrote earlier this month my last; but after reading Chris Hedges', The Cost of Bearing Witness, I know I must continue to write. Even if no one reads, I still must continue to write.“The highest form of Jihad (sacred struggle) is to speak the truth in the face of a tyrannical ruler.” In Gaza, journalists risk their lives to speak truth to power. As Hedges notes: The least I can do is, from the safety of my home in the belly of the beast, add a few words of my own.“They stand as witnesses to evil, an evil the aggressors want buried and forgotten. They expose the lies. They condemn, even from the grave, their killers. Israel has killed at least 13 Palestinian poets and writers along with at least 67 journalists and media workers in Gaza, and three in Lebanon since Oct. 7.” Hedges relates the following encounter with Guatemalan refugees on the Day of the Holy Innocents. The story of the Massacre of the Innocents bears repeating. King Herod ordered the death of all male children two years of age and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem, upon learning of the birth of Christ. Warned by an angel, Joseph escapes to Egypt with his wife, Mary, and baby Jesus. (Matthew 2:16)“I was in a refugee camp in the early 1980s for Guatemalans who had fled the war into Honduras. The peasant farmers and their families, living in filth and mud, their villages and homes burned or abandoned, were decorating their tents with strips of colored paper to celebrate the Massacre of the Innocents.” Like so many biblical verses, this one has application far beyond a single instance. It illuminates what may be a universal truth: The rich and powerful will go to any length to preserve their privileged position, even unto the indiscriminate massacre of young children. I saw this 25 years ago in Iraq where children five years of age and under were dying at a rate of 5,000 each month, mostly from preventable diarrheal disease. I was in a hospital in Baghdad listening to a doctor explain how there were few medicines and rehydration fluids were in short supply due to almost universal sanctions. I wandered off, looking around the ward, and came upon an infant so emaciated and dehydrated he couldn't even cry. He would screw up his face as if trying and then give up only to try again a few minutes later. I interrupted the doctor, “This child is dying. He needs rehydration fluids.” The doctor responded, “We gave him some earlier. He didn't respond.” Unsaid: There is not enough to go around. He has had his share. So the child will die. There is nothing we can do to save him. If the sanctions aren't lifted, many more like him will die. When I came home and would talk about Iraq, I would draw the parallel to King Herod and the Massacre of the Holy Innocents. I would ask that the sanctions be lifted, that the children may live. Few listened. The War Against Gaza is even more intense: disease, starvation, constant bombing, over 20,000 dead in less than three months, mostly women and children, thousands of children murdered. whole neighborhoods flattened by 2,000 pound made-in-the-USA bombs, over two million people crowded into 141 square miles, trapped with no place to go, nowhere to hide, one of the highest population densities on planet Earth. What kind of monster would treat children this way? What kind of monster would send 2,000 pound bombs overseas to be dropped on children? What kind of world cries crocodile tears as the massacre of the children continues? This is evil. Pure and simple. It must stop. And make no mistake, there will be paybacks. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Remember that verse. Remember it well. On this day, let us not forget the biblical massacre of the holy innocents. But above all, let us not forget that the massacre of the innocents goes on today. Let us not forget the modern-day Herods in Israel, the United States and elsewhere throughout the world that continue to massacre the children. We are called — called to speak the truth in the face of these modern-day Herods. Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesdays (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Rollaites for Peace: near the top of rightmost column).Wage peace, Tom yushasager (at) yahoo.com |