Dissenting Views
Would you, could you, kill someone
Because they like peas and you don’t?
Should a vegetarian be put to death
As they eat tofu and yet you wont?
Should other football teams’ supporters
Be dispatched from these earthly shores?
And would your opinion change
If their taste in music was the same as yours?
Should someone of a sceptical stance
Be sent to the gallows and the noose
For not believing in fairy tales
And poking fun at Mother Goose?
For those of you, with a religious twist,
Who kill because you’ve received the ‘news’:
Is your God, or Allah, or Ra, or Zeus
Too small to accept dissenting views?
.
---
© 2012 J Cosmo Newbery
---
Would you, could you, kill someone
Because they like peas and you don’t?
Should a vegetarian be put to death
As they eat tofu and yet you wont?
Should other football teams’ supporters
Be dispatched from these earthly shores?
And would your opinion change
If their taste in music was the same as yours?
Should someone of a sceptical stance
Be sent to the gallows and the noose
For not believing in fairy tales
And poking fun at Mother Goose?
For those of you, with a religious twist,
Who kill because you’ve received the ‘news’:
Is your God, or Allah, or Ra, or Zeus
Too small to accept dissenting views?
.
---
© 2012 J Cosmo Newbery
---
Print this post
If we are "made in his image" is that image too small for our views? Yet another reason I don't believe in a deity that gives a hoot whether we are or we aren't _____ (fill in the blank). We can think of more reasons to hate! Silly us.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Pauline. Nice to see you again.
DeleteThe only reason I can think of to kill is someone harming those I love. And yet I know that such a kill would be more about revenge that justice and would not breathe life back into anyone. A conundrum which seems to say to me very firmly that I should not kill.
ReplyDeleteVery true but, sadly, seldom followed.
DeleteLive and let live... a great motto.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteThough I'm certainly someone "with a religions twist," I really don't want to kill anyone. Are you implying there is something wrong with me?
ReplyDeleteRob-bear, you are obviously a commendable exception to the 'rule'. As is often the case with individuals. Unfortunately, in the realms of group behaviour, tribal behaviour, especially where 'right' and 'approval' is endowed from imaginary beings, this is not the general case.
DeleteSuch a beautiful message .... The world would have been so much better if people lived in unity !!!
ReplyDeleteI think bad architects should be summarily executed for crimes against humanity.
ReplyDeleteSigned
Mother Goose follower
You'll get no argument from me on that. And I agree with you about architects, too.
DeleteHa.. silly bugger!
DeleteSigned
Rapunzel ( Mother Goose's love child with Rumple Stiltskin)
How's ya rope climbing faciiity these days?
Most poorly, dear girl, most poorly. With my climbing skills, I fear you are doomed to the tower.
DeleteThis poem should be given wider distribution! I agree 100%.
ReplyDeletedang....truth in the raw...is your god that small in particular....and making the absurd, killing for liking peas you open eyes to much broader things....great poem....
ReplyDeleteA thoughtful piece..I think the "smallness" is in our mind ~ Whoever said that their religion is the best and only one, has been sadly brainwashed ~
ReplyDeleteI don't like peas, but I like pea soup. so do I belong somewhere between life and death?
ReplyDeleteno but seriously a very insightful piece.
The simple, gentle way you address the headline issue of intolerance is spot on Cosmo. Keep on brother!
ReplyDelete