Howard Jacobson

A living warning

1

He has allowed his identification with an ethnic-religious identity

and the state that claims to represent it

to devour his humanity,

leaving an empty shell of a human being.

Listen closely when he speaks,

read between his lines,

and you can hear the cold, terrible wind blowing

through the empty halls of his conscience.

2

A human being

must foremost be just that -

a human, humane being.

Seeing humans as humans first,

without labels put on them,

empathy as her guide.

When being a human being

comes second to being something else,

whether class, ethnicity, gender, ideology or religion

then empathy, conscience

start to shrivel and die

and the excuses of evil come crawling,

putting labels on everything,

erecting flags and symbols

on conquered mind.

10.08.2015