Copyright © 1992-2006 Mel West. All rights reserved
I was unfortunate, for I was born on a bed of pearls. One thought that my bed was like a bed of roses. "Surely you jest," she said, as I alluded to the fact that my bed was more like a bed of thorns. For the pearls in which I was born were formed from the tears of the Sons and Daughters of Heaven – surely you have heard of them – and their tears were heavily laden with salt!
Now the ancients always called Wisdom the Salt of the Earth and
to give her a name the Greeks called her Sophia and the Jews named
her Shekinah. And she became the small voice which thought
to soak mankind with wisdom over the ages. The name of this Wisdom
and this Bed of Pearls in which I was born, was called Justice.
And to know justice, all of the Sons and Daughters of Heaven agreed,
one must be acquainted with grief. My children, listen to me closely,
I am a man acquainted with grief, and as you have suffered so
have I.
In the Bed of Pearls in which I was formed there are Scales of
Justice. All of the make-weights are the same. They all have the
same gravity, and they all have the same label which we call Truth.
In plain and simple words we speak of Human Rights. To enforce
a Universal Standard on Human Rights all agreed that we would
call Truth God, our Lord and Savior, signifying that when all
else fails He will save us with his Truth. The Sons and Daughters
of Heaven agreed to give this Salvation a name and called Him
the Anointed One, or Messiah. He would be the
Son of Truth and his Salvation would be to expose liars and tyrants
who would puff themselves up at the poor. Listen to me little
children as I tell you about that Truth, how the Sons and Daughters
of Heaven sent out the Truth and it landed in the hearts of many...
The people in the park – we speak of the poor whose beds are beneath a tree if they are fortunate, since they are forbidden these days to raise their own tents – were talking about Philo yesterday. It seems that Philo had gotten involved in a scuffle with another man and was taken to jail and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. All of them there, Philo's friends, agreed that it was not like Philo to be violent, for in all the years they had known him he had never raised his hand against any man. One reluctantly admitted (to touch the truth of the matter) that it may have been a set up by the police to remove Philo from the park, since Philo had been involved in defending the rights of the people in the park. In this part of our world the poor and the homeless who circulate in the park have no rights and their dignity is abused. It was a solemn occasion and the characters in it, I perceived, were now intimidated and afraid for their own sakes.
I saw this same thing on the streets of Warsaw, when the Jews were being denied the right to live where they chose, then they were denied the right to work, then a right to beg, and finally the right to justice. I saw many of them pleading on street corners, first for someone to defend them – but no one came forth (even the priests and the pastors hid their faces from this shameful event) – and then I saw them pleading for food. Finally, aggravated by the poor, the people silently concurred when some of their leaders offered to round up the beggars, cast them into prisons, and then, failing this remedy, casting them naked into pits from a bullet into the back of the head. Men, women and children, daughters, sons, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers and close friends all stood stark naked in a line before the pits, each watching a loved one tumble before him and waiting for his or her turn to step to the edge, to join the mass of bleeding and moaning flesh where many were yet alive. Others met a different kind of fate and were drug out of rail cars to showers.But the officers who divided them into the lines for the showers had lied to them. The showers were not flowing with water but with deadly gas, and as the gas entered the "shower" there was a terrible struggle for air, where everyone climbed atop the fallen victims, until the last one died at the top of the heap. Then their bodies were shoveled out of the chambers and thrown into ovens. We heard that some of the victims were still alive as they were shoved into the furnaces.
The Nazis were having a problem with the solution of gassing the
victims, mostly done in trucks, as the victims would run to the
back door of the truck and cause it to tip back upon its rear
axle, often breaking it. Also in the scramble to reach the pure
air at the ceiling, the bodies were breaking the light bulbs.
To solve this problem, and after many high powered meetings and
much correspondence, the government decided to endure the added
expense of installing heavier duty rear axles on the trucks. There
was much discussion, however, over the light bulb, as many believed
that by eliminating the light bulb not only the cost of the bulbs
could be avoided but also the mess from the blood (from the broken
glass) could be mitigated. The final decision was in favor of
the light bulb, because the people would panic if it were dark
inside the truck, when the doors were closed upon them; so some
clever so-and-so suggested a wire screen be placed around the
light bulb. And this is the way the German people arrived at a
solution to their problems, and they called it justice.
I saw a similar happening in Nigeria, when the slaves from the interior were being loaded into ships destined for America. Since the ships were not always reliable, the holding pens for the slaves had to be secure but yet easily cleaned. So those who were the middlemen in that trade had to find better solutions to the internment of slaves waiting their transport to the Americas and, of course, standards had to be established on the care of these peoples. The young – strong and healthy ones – would be maintained and the old and the sickly would be separated and eliminated. They justified this via a phony premise that only the fit (elect) shall survive – it's every man for himself, etc. Today this religion continues persecuting people. Can we see it surfacing in the case of Philo and other people who have no rights in our parks and streets? I can't tell you how many Americans have argued with me about the issue of the homeless in the parks and in our streets. I hear rhetoric, I hear condemnations, and I hear the old worn out postulate that the meek and the poor deserve their lot, etc. I learned why no one is sympathetic to the homeless, that they should be given the right to have a Tent over their head, food and medicine, just as other unfortunate refugees, like the Kurds, hurricane victims, etc. I asked this generation where our homeless and poor refugees can find cover and help – even a Tent in the Park – and NIMBY's passing by me answered, "Not here!" "What a cruel and rude generation," I thought to myself. I saw that there was no justice. What the American People have been doing to the poor and the homeless in our own streets is unjust.
I saw similar happenings – to varying degrees of terror and intimidation – in many other places. In Rome the citizens were very creative in inventing violent entertainment programs and intimidations of justice. At first the Roman idea of justice was to throw people to all kinds of starved [for the occasion] beasts. Some were tied to stakes while the animals raged at them and others were hung by one leg upside down just high enough above the leaping fangs to be sliced a little at a time – to the joy of the ticket payers in the grandstands above. Others were placed in a large frying pan placed over hot coals; others met a more grim fate (as if there were levels of grimness) by being strapped in a chair called the Hot Seat, which was an iron chair containing hot coals. A person would usually suffocate from his own seared flesh. Often the crowd insisted on reviving its victims to prolong their delight.
Others Rome put on wracks and broke their bodies. Sometimes, whether mauled by beasts or wracks, survivors of the first day's games were called back the next day for the finish.
Caesar, to please the citizens of Rome, raised thousands of crosses
on the Appian Way and having nailed his victims to those crosses
lit them on fire. For miles one could ride the Appian Way in the
night lit as it were at sunrise or a full moon, for many of the
victims were still glowing.
Other victims were simply strapped between two animals and torn
apart; often this was not dramatic enough for the crowd, however,
and two poles were placed into the ground and bent over (they
used to use trees), tying the victim between them. When the rope
holding down the bent poles was cut the victim was ripped apart
and his sundry pieces thrown as far as the highest levels of the
grandstands.
Body parts of victims were a big item in Rome as well as among
the Nazis. It was chic to carry a purse made out of the skin of
a martyred victim, and in Germany many beautiful women wore cosmetics
made from the fats of the Jews; and many churches lit their sacred
trancepts with candles no doubt made from the Jews' fats.
When Columbus arrived in America – an event initiating 70 million native deaths – Christians in Spain, under Torquemada, loved to lay Jews to the old wracks which embraced Christians in Rome. Martin Luther didn't see this as a sufficient solvent (dissuading Jews); he simply advocated the complete destruction of the entire race.
Since we are speaking of Truth – and we here mean the truth of man's abuse of Human Dignity and Human Rights and the Cause of God to defend them – we must not forget to mention that Adolph Hitler was directly inspired by Martin Luther (who claimed to be inspired by God) and implemented exactly what Martin Luther recommended in a tract written in A.D. 1543, which for the sake of truth and leveling the playing field so-to-speak, should be quoted in part here:
Luther tract A.D. 1543 What shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews ? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we cannot tolerate them, if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses and blasphemy...Let me give you my honest advice:
1. To set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord..
2. I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed...
3. I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.
4. I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb ...
5. I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the country-side, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like...
6. I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them, and put aside for safe keeping..
7. I recommend putting a flail, an ax, an hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hand of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow.
Psalm 12.5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
The crux of Truth all comes down to the fact that its purpose is against the oppression of the poor and to alleviate the sighing of the needy. Those desiring to exploit others are simply at odds with this Universal Truth proclaimed in Psalm 12 and defended in every piece of International Legislation known to man. The message of this Truth encompasses not only the rights of man, but the beasts and the furrows of the earth as well: ..and [God] shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth (Rev. 11.18). Many supposedly God-fearing people scorn this threat however...
I asked the Sons and Daughters of Heaven about this: "How in the world can we find a people who will stay true to the values of Human Dignity and Human Rights?" Here I am, in a world which is supposed to be far from the world of the Roman Coliseum, and the horrifying whims of nations's past: I rest midst a group of nations who agree upon a collection of sacred truths promising to protect all of us, from the lowliest among us to the highest; and yet I see no end to the persecutions of the past! Were these written in vain?:
- The Helsinki Agreement (1975), providing for the inherent dignity of the human person essential to his free and full development;
- American Convention on Human Rights (1969), to the effect that everyone has the right to have his honor respected and his dignity recognized and to be recognized before the law;
- United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), recognizing that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying civil and political freedom and freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his civil and political rights, as well as his economic, social and cultural rights..
- European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1953), including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers; noting that everyone whose rights and freedoms are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority;
- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), that everyone is entitled to full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal...
Little Children, after much arguing and much hardship – God knows the tears which have been shed – the world has agreed on some Universal Human Rights which go beyond the American Constitution
and Bill of Rights, beyond even the United Nations' Charter, and
rest upon an easily measured Scale of Truth. This scale outshines
Martin Luther and other persecutors in the past. It says that
all are saved by the Spirit of Truth.
We used Martin Luther as an example of untruth because he has caused a lot of human suffering – six million people went to the ovens under his advise – but we can pick through history (current and past) and find all kinds of other like creeds, blessing some at the expense of others. Today, with our International Covenants, we can all stand up and say no longer will we allow a few to bless themselves at the expense and tears of others.
Justice begins with Truth, doesn't it? To eliminate persecution
of the Jews, for instance, we have to reveal the Truth about Martin
Luther and others who influenced him [sic. the Apostle Paul].
Luther was not alone; we selected his example only as one of many
areas of concern which have led to the persecution of many groups
of peoples throughout the world.
The Price of Justice begins with Truth. I remember a man in Warsaw
grabbing at the coat-tails of passer-bys, asking them to look
into the truth about Martin Luther's and Hitler's solution to
Germany's problems. No one answered him. Yet, his cry in the streets
was not alone, for there were many appealing for Mercy and no
one listened to them either! This is shocking but true!
The same pleas were being made by a few in the streets where the slavers were operating, but they also were not answered. But one day, after several hundred years of abuse, one man – it only took one man! – stood up for the cause of Human Dignity and Human Rights and said that we would not tolerate such abuse any longer. His name was Abraham Lincoln .
That voice has again been suppressed, with the needy and the oppressed in even greater numbers. I asked the Sons of Heaven about this. "Justice is served only when the just stand up and are counted; for it is they who hold the truth and only the truth can set us free," they answered.
Stand up and be counted. America, how often your lips press the truth but feign it! Our love of Human Rights is confined to rhetoric, hiding the truth to oppress others. We speak of nations in bonds but are ourselves in worse bonds. To escape our bonds – the Budget Deficit lie (smudged under our leaders' rhetoric) is such a bond – we must demand truth. We must stand up and be counted – though the risk is great – if our experiment in Human Rights is to prevail.
M9/24/92
Postscript (2/12/06) – In light of current trends (See Maravot News) I am dumbfounded, seeing how little into the future this small offering did see.
(5/27/00) – Since 1992 I still have not been able to find a person willing to give our homeless a fair hearing. Nor have I been able to find a pastor or priest who is willing to march to defend them. And in this moment of elections there is no one willing to speak about the homeless problem, or the National Debt and its consequences, how it is the cause of the collapse of our economy; nor have I found one indignant enough over the matter to march in the streets to defend the poor. What I have found is a silent agreement among all people to turn aside and look the other way whilst the indignity continues. I passed this observation to the Sons and Daughters of Heaven and they answered that these people are worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, and it is for this people that the great consumption was reserved. For to whom much is given more is required. So be it [amen].
Please send me over to check out some background
on the Shroud of Turin (Mandylion) Image [A fairy tale which includes
some history of the Mandylion, written for my daughter; ed. note],
The_Romance_Anaisfille3.html.
Please send me to inspect the National
Debt Scandal.html
Please send me over to examine From
Dust and Ashes to Joy.html. How Christ viewes His Second Coming.
Please send me over to examine the Miracle
of Zer Anpin.html
Please send me over to examine Jesus' comment,
My Father is Greater than I.html:
how He saw His relationship between Himself and God, the Father.
Please beam me back up to Maravot's_Index.html