Photo: huffpost.com West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall early 11 November 1989 as they watch people trying to demolish a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square.
“The wall that protects you also imprisons you.” Susan Jeffers
Found on ebay: I disposed of mine not long ago, strange to see another one floating around.
“We keep stuff in order to hang on to what’s important, but it’s an illusion … these objects are not bridges to the past, they’re bridges to memories of the past. But they are not the past.” Helen Fisher
At dVerse Lisa is hosting Prosery (144 words) with an invitation to write including the sentence “I dress in their stories patterned and purple as night.” from the poem ‘When we sing of might’ by Kimberly Blaeser.
Photo: still shot from the film ‘The Rabbit Proof Fence’ a story of three aboriginal girls forcibly taken from their mothers and placed in a town far away under white control in oder to assimilate them and exploit them. The film is based on the true story as told by author Doris Pilkington who was taken from her mother at three years of age, in her book of the same name. Known as the Stolen Generation, children were forcibly removed over generations between 1884 and 1969.
“In their grief the women asked why their children should be taken form them.” Doris Pilkington ‘The Rabbit Proof Fence’
At Dverse Ingrid is hosting Prosery with an invitation to use a line from William Blake’s poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ – “If all do their duty, they need not fear harm.”
“Being evil is only something that only humans are capable of.” Jane Goodall
Just Following Orders
In 1960 an architect appeared in court in down town Jerusalem charged with crimes against humanity. He was the architect of the Holocaust, his defence was banal, he claimed immunity because he was only following orders.
Who never questions motive? Who believes they are perfect and above the law?And who never effects harm on others? But of those who excelled in following orders, no matter how perverted, Adolf Eichmann stands apart as intentionally evil, and more so because of his claim that he was just following orders. And, so, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm? really? Think slavery. Think Eichman, think Vietnam War, Think Derek Chauvin, think so many.
Our actions always affect others, and where there is evil the effect is always negative. Harm comes to those in the orbit of such people. Just listen to Holocaust survivors.
Photo (found on everipedia.org): Inside the former HM Maze Prison (formerly known as Long Kesh Detention Centre) in Northern Ireland where during the 1970s the British forces interned both IRA and Loyalist prisoners, and in 1981 where Bobby Sands (along with nine other prisoners) died while on hunger strike at the age of 27. The Prison has since been demolished except for a portion retained as historical. Part of the former prison was offered for use by the Eikon Centre for events.
“They may hold our bodies in the most inhuman conditions, but, while our minds are free, our victory is assured.” Bobby Sands