The Angry Exile: Charity Appeal.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Friday 30 April 2010

Charity Appeal.

As a change to the usual style of blog I'd like to make an appeal for a worthy cause. Here in Australia, at the end of the 21st century's first decade, there are still people stuck in the desperate and pitiable plight of not having a dictionary in which to look up the word 'liberal'. The result of this is that the Australian Liberals still include some of the most deeply illiberal people you can imagine. People who feel that a woman's ownership of her body does not extend to her uterus, for example.

CONTROVERSIAL Liberal MP Bernie Finn has sparked outrage by suggesting pro-choice cabinet minister Maxine Morand should not be ''let loose'' on kindergarten children.

After seeing Ms Morand on TV news on Tuesday night campaigning at a kindergarten in her marginal seat, Mr Finn wrote on the social networking site Facebook: "Bernie Finn doubts it was such a good idea to allow Early Childhood Destruction Minister Maxine Morand loose in a kindergarten. A few years younger and those kids would be right within her target range!"

...Mr Finn stood by his comments, saying it was "sickening" that Ms Morand would use children for electioneering after sponsoring legislation to decriminalise abortion.

"I find it appalling that here is an individual who is responsible for a piece of legislation which legalises the killing of children up until the moment of birth, and there she is parading around with young children in order to win votes," he said.

"Some people know no shame."

Ironic coming from a someone who wants women's reproductive systems to belong to the government yet joins a party called the Liberals. Eff Why Eye, Bernie:

Liberal

Adjective
1. Showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; "a broad political stance"; "generous and broad sympathies"; "a liberal newspaper"; "tolerant of his opponent's opinions".
2. Having political or social views favoring reform and progress.
3. Tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition.
4. Given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather".
5. Not literal; "a loose interpretation of what she had been told"; "a free translation of the poem".

Noun
1. A person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties.
2. A person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets.

Now as I said in this blog's second ever post, I personally find abortion rather distasteful and feel that there are far better methods of birth control, but since I don't have a uterus I really don't feel that I have any right to lecture those who do on what they can and can't do with it. In response my saying this either here or in the comments at hers JuliaM once came out with some Clinton quote (Bill or Hill, I forget) along the lines that abortion should ideally be legal, safe and rare, which more or less sums up where I'm coming from. Where I think I'll differ from the Bernie Finns of the world is that while I dislike abortion I'm not prepared to use violence* to stop it. He's perfectly entitled to say what he likes, of course. He can hold whatever personal beliefs that make a mockery of the dictionary definition of 'liberal' that he likes, and he can call himself liberal or anything else that he likes (and Christ knows he's not going to be alone in the Liberal party in that respect).

In turn I can call him an authoritarian twat who needs a dictionary.

* By which I mean state violence rather than the physical violence sometimes directed at abortion services and their staff. However, there's really not much difference if it's illegal - break abortion law and you'll be arrested, resist arrest and you'll be physically restrained, resist strongly enough and eventually someone will point a weapon at you.