PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

I remember a man once telling me that some people kill and feel nothing, have no remorse whatsoever. I argued with him and said no, later it comes back to haunt the murderer. He shook his head. I was shocked that he might believe that. I used to be 19.
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Later, I learned it was true. Crazy people or people totally trapped in war theaters (warriors and innocents) learn to survive by feeling nothing. Now, I am shocked that such conditions exist for people who live in civilized societies among free first world dwellers. Killing to survive has a cost, I want to think. I want to think that our justice system forces isolation on those who murder, and in some states murder answers murder in death penalties. I want to believe in honesty and fairness in the court system here, but like remorselessness, the reality has to be accepted. 50% true, 30%, 90%, somebody knows, probably a judge or a criminal lawyer, or a corporate CEO earning five mill a year. Oprah knows. The gods know and probably consider it a human joke.
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Institutionalized violence, what a concept! Armies, governing congresses, black ops, police actions, and wars (street fights, gangs, rioters, family feuds, and revolutions) are somehow considered “acceptable”. Peaceful people are not patriots if they do not embrace the latest conflict over seas, for example. If the Nazis taught us anything it’s that official does not always equal in your best interest. Can I get a Amen!
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Still, wanting peace and non-violence is laudable, and is certainly the goal of all wars, but not illegal violences like senseless killing or death for sport which has always existed and exists yet. Wife beating, cruelty against seniors, child abuse, suicide, exploitation of others weaknesses, self weakness, negligence, disgust at the physically and mentally challenged are all harsh forms of violence that exist now. A poet on postpoems talked of dreaming away. The ill prepared are so prevalent among those who own pacifist inclinations and mentalities, postures, and politics, that if they are confronted with say a gunman, they crumble. It is imperative that acceptance of violence as a real thing (yes to be avoided) has countermeasures and deterrents. The world (any world large or small) is dangerous and the best defense against harm is the ability to defer, end, or obstruct using greater harm (superior force). Truth told, I would not want to live in the U.S.A. unless there was a threat of violence to other nations to keep our "peace" and unmolested status (less the trade towers and Pearl Harbor incidents) free from larger types of violence. No nukes, please!
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Historically, the unimaginable has happened and will happen. I would not want to live anywhere without a police force. Hard truths abound. Half of the minorities in our prisons would probably kill me as easily as lighting a cigarette. That’s a hard truth to face, but the harder truth is that living outside the prisons are similar minority violent folk within what is miss-called the majority who would kill me for half a cigarette. A pack now costs $7 to $8 dollars, for you non smokers. Remember when a carton of ten packs was $3 dollars? No? I do. Today, a carton is $70.00. My life is worth at least that much. So is yours. Why did you kill her? I needed cigarette money, or drug money, or rent, or my kids were hungry, or “because”. Because is considered a childish answer, but I see it as a fill in the blanks reply – too many reasons to list and all of ‘em are kinda stupid and ignorant and inane. To me, there is nothing sadder (and more ironic) than a highly educated murderer. (Anyone watching the tv series, Revenge – truly harsh but I love it! – We are all conditioned to violence in a number of forms and from all kinds of sources. My favorite books are about killing – Shakespeare, Dune, Vampires, Who Done It’s.) Wherever there is wealth and those who are left without enough to live coexisting, there will be murder by death. You know that. The Bible and religious texts are full of it as example. Unavoidable like the poor, always with us.

Revenge is human and often tied to survival. Like hate and fear, revenge by an individual is a fleeting emotion and the U.S. courts recognize it as a form mental illness (emotionally challenged to be topically and politically correct and up to speed on the latest terminology). Criminally insane, homicidal from birth (I’m warped I think Dexter is a sweetheart-totally manipulated by the media again), accidental deaths (guns left unsecured from children is a form of violence that is inconceivably hard to deal with and revenge is born of such senseless and avoidable acts done by innocents), retribution in the name of God or as with the Nazis, a race all exist and have existed. History is chugged full of examples. Any pantheon of Gods across all borders and times are full of deities assisting mortals to seek and extract the “R” word.
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Yes, yes, yes, peace is my goal always, but I really need a larger military budget immediately. Just me thinking again, but Afghanistan and Iraq were both revenge of the U.S. people for those thousands lost when the trade towers came down on innocents.
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There are potential valid arguments that there are no innocents, just victims or the unlucky, but placating the masses is an art form and calming down groups is science (sociology & psychology) and wielding the right words creates that outcome called peace. We-they is on the top of the list. Not me or mine is second. It must be those who are different, less human ones, the animals – yeah, animals who create discord in my peaceful world. Here’s a heads up – we have never had a peaceful world except in our imaginations (granted writers live there, I’ve invented an exclusive Island for just writers to exist in peace and love and joy and prolificness). It is to be wished for, striven for, even dreamed as reality, but at best we have periods of peace like existence. Revenge as a form of violence will touch a life somewhere between birth and death, unless they live alone on an Island (or are perpetually out to lunch or as the Drifters sing, peaceful as can be up on the roof escaping the riff-raff noise down on the street).
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Payback is a bitch, but payback is also human. Those with less discipline and reason, who have no sense of civilized behavior (not taught to them or they decided to be prehistoric in their philosophies) live among us. What to do about them is why we have police and armies, judges, and lawyers.
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The violent and revenge seeking are different? Oh yeah. Very. Still, a peaceful world, or the dream of one, is vanishing and will end when the resources run out and the water rises, or the animals migrate across the border to a country not yours. I’m still working on ML King’s dream – and think the rhetoric nice and the sentiment fine indeed, but I add emphatically, “If we have the time, Martin, one day.” We may not have the time. The frozen tundra is melting, alarmists say. It is a matter of time before the life-links to the survival of larger species are broken (bees are dying and crops will fail and create famine). Did you know that scrap metal (refined and ready for manufacturing sellable and usable good) is a big business from the U.S. to “rising” nations? Did you know that ending the shipment of scrap metal is a political ploy and cause for war? Did you know that debt has become a truly evil thing worldwide? Did you know that restless feet in a bona fide disease in humans and that lobsters perpetually scraping their claws is a new development? Do you know the number of people who have died from the current outbreak of the Ebola virus? Peace is similar to love, sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it ends in emotional ruin. Sometimes you know the statistics, sometimes you bury your head in the sand and dream of a world at peace empty of violent restitution. Seeing reality as it is - a Don Quixote concept - does not negate seeing it as it should be. Living in an absolute world is a free choice, granted that as well. Living in a future that does not exist and will not likely exist perpetually is merely wishing and hoping and singing and praying for a different outcome.
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I’m just trying to keep it straight, the way I have evolved to see and accept the world. Some are protected and see it differently. I wish we all lived in a world where peace was a given. Heaven concepts are born of such beliefs. Jesus and Sidhartha and Mohammed scream peace at the faithful and many world-wide practice and live by the tenants of peace. I am thinking now of my friend, Bishwanth, a man of true peace in his heart always. Unfortunately, the faithful do violence in their deities names. It has always been so. The holy one vs the villain syndrome.
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Peace and respect are terms that are slowly losing their denotations as values of choice and revenge is like fear; it will take a lot of ink to explore that one. A few scholars have and will take a stab at larger articulations of revenge. Not me. I’m just sayin’

Lady A
11/13/14
1048p