Tag Archives: information

Massacre in Turkey and Father’s Day

Dear Readers:

I have hesitated for a long time before posting this plea to you.  My sense of judgment, outrage at violence, especially, when unprovoked, love for humanity brought me to my senses along with my conviction that we all may one day end up in a similar state of being, when information becomes a must toward helping others who are being subjected to government-ordered brutality and absolute censorship.  Hence, my post.

The situation in Turkey is getting worse, in that that the government ups its forces and violence and is not keeping it a secret. Tomorrow has already dawned in Turkey, very soon the UNARMED protesters will be facing the violent (not to stop the people but to hurt in any which way they can), brutal (if chemically mixed pressured water won’t hurt as much as they like, one on one hits with whatever they have on them, which is always the most compared to the protesters who have nothing), merciless (no age group is immune as the reports keep coming in). Some call this “civil war”, including Turkey’s current prime minister who caused all this division to the nation but bear in mind: It can’t be civil war, for only one side is armed. His.  It has been already quite a suffering to which he objected his own population thus far already but June 16, 2013 – tomorrow/today in Turkey may and most likely will get worse. It is father’s day. From the outset of his political journey, aiming to erase not only the name but all history of and about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, called affectionately THE FATHER OF THE TURKS since 1923, the said prime minister is claimed to have planned to do everything in his power to cast for that role once and for all.  Please be aware with regard to the most time-tested English-speaking international news coverage (Christiane Amanpour is a best point to start) to the best that you can and spread the word. There is no Turkey-based English news coverage to which I can refer you at the moment (and most likely for a long time to come), as the reliable ones are either shut or going through governmental investigation.  I refuse to play into your emotional side and am therefore not posting anything visual or audio-captured, whether overly disturbing or not.  Nor will I ever do here.  My heartfelt thanks for listening to me.

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Filed under Reflections

how else could we know of your sorrow? – Poem 1 for the Helping Tornado Victims in Oklahoma project of INDIES IN ACTION

we mourn those who are killed

whether by nature or human hands

form groups for support

join in the pain in any way we can

honor, reminisce, collaborate

beyond a swift case of heartache

 

yet,

we forget

in the face of the ease

amid traffic on cyberspace

who gave us the chance to compensate

for the immense loss of those violently killed

 

the reporting souls who often tend to get

the thunder, the fire, the flood, the twister effect

from us;

we frequently resend

their tongue, their style, what they account –

they are the ones whom we neglect

 

now that there was a deadly whirling wind

by which twenty-four human beings were killed

none will remain a mere number –

mourners, there are a plenty

including young school children

one of whom was amazed to see

the celebration of the dead and the living;

like the three hundred and seventy-five people injured –

in welcoming hope, their lives we get to embrace

 

schools, destroyed;

12,000 homes, damaged or vanished;

some owners, already named –

numerous volunteers, fast ready to help

 

we, too, are thus, enabled to step in

locals, non-locals, other continents’ residents –

in body, in spirit or by spreading the word out loud

by writing, speaking, or simply wishing

strength in heart to those young and old,

who mourn loved ones for their lives’ ceasing

 

for, we have learned of your sorrow

thanks to the efforts in reporting

by those who live any- and everywhere

but also there

where you again will call home

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Filed under Poetry, Reflections