For year upon
year
for many ages,
our leaders
presidents of
both parties
all of them,
failing to speak
looking after our
own self-interest
If we had not
been silent
the world’s
superpower
would the people
have had to rise up
would they have
had to cry for their freedom
under the boot of
the dictators
If we had not
been silent
would they have
lived in freedom
not becoming
martyrs;
Would the war
crimes tribunals
have crumbled to
dust
History will
judge us
for those many
years, decades,
when we remained
silent
thinking about
the present
not thinking
about anyone else
Those people
subjugated
so we could sleep
soundly
far from the
repression;
we were willfully
blind
to their
suffering
half a world away
==========
edited October
28, 2015
If We had not
been Silent – v2
May 20, 2011
If We had not
been Silent
Speech May 19,
2011 by United States President Barack Obama
on the Arab
Spring of 2011
and how our
country will chart a new course
holding up the
people more
and not just
focusing on our narrower
financial and
strategic interests
&
March 17, 2011
UN Security
Council approval of sanctions against Libya
&
calling on President
Obama and the world
to act in the
Middle East, especially in Libya and Bahrain,
to stand with the
people
yearning to
breathe free
and not worrying
about the results,
that it is always
right to stand for basic human rights
&
on the
transformations since the beginning of January -
all the protests
in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya,
Jordan, Iran,
Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Djibouti, Mauritania, Senegal, etc.
and
especially the
resignation of Hosni Mubarak
February 11, 2011
&
and the jubilance
in Tahrir Square
versus the
bloodshed in Bahrain and Libya, etc.
February 18, 2011
&
hearing claim by
President Obama 2/15/2011
in a news
conference that when history books tell it
we will be seen as
being on the right side of history
in how the United
States responded
&
Post on Twitter
by Wael Ghonim
“Our Revolution
was like Wikipedia”
February 14, 2011
&
Post on Twitter
by Wael Ghonim
“This
is Revolution 2.0: No one was a hero because everyone was a hero.”
February 13, 2011
and see
A
Prayer for the People of Egypt (February 3, 2011)
by Safiyah Fosua
All of my poems
are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. All rights reserved.
Contact me at Ray
Foss for usage. See all 39,820+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
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