Who Deserves the Nobel Prize?
Years ago on at Whistler Mountain run
Exhausted at the end of day from the altitude and sun
I fell with arms outstretched and experienced a terrible jolt
Dislocating my shoulder- the pain like a lightning bolt.
The pain was in truth beyond excruciating
And in truth totally debilitating
Being trained I swiftly popped it back into place
And continued down hill a few yards at a pace.
But caught a ski edge and crashed again—the searing pain beyond belief-
Fortunately quickly reduced with instant relief
But as I rose on my ski poles to be on my way
It popped out again—that was all I could take
So after reducing the shoulder for the third time
In three minutes I removed the skis
And laboriously in the deep snow trudged
Down the slopes to the beckoning lodge
So at the same time Obama is pledging undying devotion
To Netanyahu and the Israeli nation
We learn of CodePink’s Medea Benjamin’s deportation
Following her overnight Cairo Airport incarceration
And after being manhandled by “five scary guys” she said
Who pushed her to the ground and cuffed her so tight she bled
Then trounced her, and her shoulder dislocated
Then whisked her to a Turkish Airliner that reluctantly waited.
So with her pain I totally empathize
It’s contemplation brings tears to my eyes
To think of this non-violent peace loving harmless person
Being mistreated so brutally is beyond comprehension
But in a sense this demonstrates the power of CodePink
For petite Medea must be considered a threat to the system I think
Who was it that ordered these five massive brutes to attack–
Like a howling wolf pack stomping on her back?
The Square captured Egyptians dramatically
In their heart- wrenching struggle for liberty
And for a government of dignity.
Serving all the people with inclusivity
It documents the overthrow of a tyrant that was hated
And the subsequent exchange of one oppressor for another
But in the end true to recent history
Power resided in the military—no mystery.
The real betrayal of the Egyptian people is by the US
Who supported Mubarak over thirty years of duress?
Who rendered persons there for torture.
And Medea too was herself cruelly tortured
Our oxymoronic Nobel-prize winning president we see
Still supports the Egyptian military
For on military dictators we seem to insist
On supplying them with used armaments– we just can’t resist.
And the President, the commander (and assassin) in chief is willing
For he says “Turns out I’m really good at killing…” *
And considering his NSA has wire-tapped the whole world in deed
Someone knows who ordered this brutal and cowardly deed.
And now I should point out on my own
Medea has fought for peace and opposed the drones
But the President and his minions have dished out lies—
Do not Medea and CodePink deserve the Nobel Prize?
Howard P. Charman, MD 3-4-2014 and 3-16-2014
*Mark Halperin & John Heilemann Double Down: Game Change 2012, p55, Penguin Press. New York, 2013, p55:
The Obamans met again on September 30, a Friday afternoon.. An hour beforehand, the president was on the phone with talk radio host Michael Smerconish, savoring the major news of the day: a Predator drone strike, ordered by Obama, had killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born fire brand Islamist preacher who had become a senior Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. Al-Awlaki had been connected to the failed efforts of at least two would-be terrorists—the “underwear bomber,” in December 2009, and the Times Square bomber in May 2010—imperiling American lives during Obama’s tenure” We are very pleased,” the president told Smerconish, “that Mr. al-Awlaki is no longer going to be in a position to directly threaten the United States homeland.”
….
…Everyone knew the litany of his achievements. Foremost on that day, with the fresh news about al-Awlaki, it seemed the president was pondering the drone program that he had expanded so dramatically and with such lethal results, as well as the death of bin Laden, which was still resonating worldwide months later. “Turns out I’m really good at killing people,” Obama said quietly. “Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”