On Wed, 2 Jul 1997, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> Today the state of Maryland executed Mr. Hunt, a black man, for killing a
> white police officer some 12 years. This barbaric human sacrifice was
> broadly televised, as "execution countdown" on local TV. At the same time,
>
> The United States is the only industrialised country that has death penalty.
> This puts it together with countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, North Korea,
> China and other so-called rogue nations. In fact, as the enclosed postings
>
> In moments like that, I am really proud of being just a vistor in this
> country. It is a great emotional comfort to be able to say "I am not really
> a part of this society and its barbaric rituals."
>
> Wojtek Sokolowski
Thanks for this post Wojtek. In your comments you seem to want to
disassociate yourself from "this society," but I would not recommend that.
I am part of this society, like many others who strongly oppose this form
of barbarism, and I think it would be far better to associate yourself
with certain parts of American society, namely those of us who are
politicized and possess a social conscience that you should identify with.
I don't identify with the America that allows such barbarism to occur, nor
am I willing to allow it to be defined as "American," even if it is state
sanctioned.
Your poignant posting reminded me of a passage from Barbara Kingsolver's
novel, *The Bean Trees*, pp.134-136. A rural working class young single
mom from Kentucky ends up in Arizona and ends up acquainting a couple from
Guatemala, organizers of a teacher's union in exile and hiding from the
INS at -get this- "Jesus is Lord Used Tires," which serves as a sanctuary
for Central American refugees. Well, gradually this woman ends up
learning this couple's tragic story of encounters with political
repression and torture.....and this is her reaction:
"I don't know exactly how to say this, I thought I'd had a pretty hard
life. But I keep finding out that life can be hard in ways I never knew
about"
"I can see that it would be easier not to know," he replied.
(She replies) "That's not fair, you don't see at all. You think you're the
foreigner here and I'm the American, and I just look the other way while
the President or somebody sends down this and that, shiploads of
telephones to torture people with. But nobody asked my permission, ok?
Sometimes I feel like I'm a foreigner too. I come from a place that's so
different from here you would think you'd stepped right off the map into
some other country where they use dirt for decoration and the national
pastime is having babies. People don't look the same, talk the same,
nothing....
