Survivor’s Oath
I was raised to praise
the death
the loss
of one who gave their life
I was told to hold
the legend
the honor
of their righteous sacrifice
Unplanned I stand
alone
unaided
as they took the easier path
Those we oppose
still breathe
still move
still strike us with their wrath
Again and again
I question
I wonder
how much harder was their plight?
For me you see
naught pain
nor death
can cease me from this fight
Humans,
For as long as we’ve dared to exist and to roam,
Many a killing we’ve boasted.
When christian martyrs were once slaughtered in Rome,
They were slaves to the passions they hosted.
But,
What if the people who really quelled sins
Were the ones who lived on, kept us trying?
How can we really consider these wins
When the ‘heroes’ in question are dying?
Perhaps they were dying for freedom, for change.
Perhaps they just wanted to die.
But whatever the reason, their end seems so strange;
One word brings us shock: Crucify.
Likewise racial angst, our new high-strung religion,
Paints images stark of “bad man”.
But what if beliefs do not matter a smidgen?
What if dying was the plan?
When questioned, can anything bad be for good?
What if it’s all a mistake?
Events can employ more motion than they should.
...How many more lives will it take?
I hate the idea!
dying is easy, living is hard, living AND bringing benefit to others is even harder.
start with that.
people have chosen to die under some pretext, that their death will bring change, along religious lines.
i am not only talking radical terrorists, i’m also talking about people that chose to bring a death about themselves only, just to set a message across deaf ears.
did any of these ever achieve their object?
the world is harsh and full of misery, and much of it can be traced to these acts.
a message of greater peace and justice can not be legitimately delivered with high explosives, neither can it be truly respected by self-immolation.
a person who desires his death to be meaningful is misleading himself. death is sad and pointless. there is no uniqueness in death, no originality. just greif for other people.
wouldnt a greater message that a person could send was to take actions to help others? there is so much that can be done that isn’t.
i always feel, that the martyrs of this world, are just unwilling to see that their life can rise above the pain and complexity of existing, into decisive , CONSTRUCTIVE acts. life is depressing, and so lighting the fuse would not be much of a difference, wether they do so privately or as a spectacle. ‘better go out, with a statment’
but is it so?
couldn’t they have found a way to turn their motivation to something good?
ask yourself, would Mahatma Ghandi be remembered for his death, or for tearing down the british colonial system in a non-violent, maddeningly sympathetic way?
does he need to die to be heroic?
the answer is NO. he could have lived, and should have lived longer, his death was not his choice, and only pain came out of it.
who ultimately did more for the greater good, a preist burning himself with gassoline, or a preist that preached reconciliation and love between the races of the world?
perhaps here my jewish influance is showing.
life is sacred, above all other things.
any act of violence is bad, even violance that is self inflicted. a person that feels the religiius zeal to hurt himself and others has lost the point of religion altogether.
Let me be selfish
I am no martyr
I am not your savior, I
exist for myself
(the end)