The Middle Beast

Everybody’s got to live somewhere. My grandparents came across the Atlantic to here. I never experienced the prejudice they did. The Red Monkey Irish like Italians and other Papists and even Jews slowly faded into the mass of  Protestants from Europe referred to generally as white people. 

Not that our tribalism disappeared. I knew the ethnic background and religion of every kid in my alley in my home town of Baltimore in the land of Mary, the former Catholic colony. My parents grew up in the city of Brotherly Love a hundred miles north founded by Quakers. The line between those two states was drawn in the greatest blood letting this nation has yet to experience. Don’t let anyone bullshit you, the only state’s right at issue was the freedom to own another human being.

We survived it- so far- and we’ve an election later this year. I hope every eligible citizen casts their ballot and we’ll get exactly what we voted for.

That’s what happened half way round the world. The Pals voted in Ham Ass which is dedicated to the destruction of their enveloping neighbor Is It Real. The Realists or Unrealists, depending on your point of view, met this move by voting in more aggressive leadership who empowered their (un)settlers to further encroach on the Pals land. 

Is it God’s fault or Allah’s? Both the Pals and IsRealists were promised the area by their Maker. Both peoples have been there for centuries. The Isrealists were chased away many times but never completely. The Pals mostly came up from the big peninsula spreading their religion by the sword. They should have known better. If the Romans couldn’t get rid of Isrealists, nobody could. 

So now there is once again a Holy War. Does it look holy to you? Holy Hell. It just looks like what it is: war. To argue who are the indigenous people on that patch of sand is insanity. It is and has been the most disputed sandbox in the history of our species.

The chosen leaders on both sides need each other. Both lead through fear and hatred. Without their extremism and that of their opponents they would wither into inconsequence. Perhaps there could have already been two states by now had not both sides murdered their own most effective peacemakers years ago.

To extremists, moderation and compromise are treason and apostasy.

There is no effective middle in the Middle East. The middles of both sides handed the reins over to their extremists and the Middle East has returned to being the Middle Beast with no end in sight.

Hope that doesn’t happen here.

Don Arrup

Satire1