The following poem comes from an East African humorist...

[sabrinamari]

"The follwing poem comes from an East African humorist.
Brooke Schoepf

From: "GENDER-AIDS" <gender-aids@eforums.healthdev.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 4:59 AM


An Open Letter From God
By Mwaganu wa Kaggia
Email: AIDSoutofAFRICA@aol.com

I know you have been wondering
How a loving God
Would unleash
Such a horrible disease
Like HIV/AIDS
On his people.
I have sat quietly
For some time now
Observing
How you would respond
To such a sinister invader
As well as the response
Of my Special Forces
In the face of such an enemy
And I have felt the pain and suffering.
In the beginning
I was not that worried
I knew I had my Special Forces out there
Pope, Bishops, Priests, Rabbis, Imams
And Others across the globe
They are my Special Forces
To defend humanity
But as time went by
I was just angry
As HIV/AIDS invaded
Every country
Every neighborhood
And my Special Forces
Ran and hid
Not rising
To meet the invasion.
Behaving like collaborators
They were silent
In the face of the invasion
As their communities
Were invaded and occupied
In the face of Disease
Death
And Destruction
They were silent
As millions of my people
Perished
My Special Forces
Were nowhere to be found.
But I am a patient God
I gave them time
To come to their senses
I was to be disappointed
When they opened their mouths
They sounded
More like idiots
Rather than
My Special Forces
When many moved
Into education and prevention
They found ways
To do nothing
As millions of my people
Died
I watched in dismay
As they found excuse
After excuse
Why talking about HIV/AIDS
Was not on their agenda.
As many talked about condoms
My Special Forces avoided the topic
At first I thought
Maybe these condoms
Did not work at all
Only to find out that
My front line
Were condemning condoms
Because, they "might"
Encourage young people
To engage in intercourse
But that was not all
My Special Forces
Fought against
Teaching my people
About themselves
Their bodies
And how to prevent
This new disease
I could not understand
How one
Could enter my Kingdom
If one is ignorant of self
Mind and body
I know I have never
Encouraged ignorance
Only enlightenment
I wondered
Why my best and brightest
Were not raising hell
Excuse my language
When their flock
Was being decimated
By HIV/AIDS
Were they blind?
Did they not know
Their first obligation
Is to defend the lives
Of my people?
Did they not know
The biggest sin
Is to sit back
And not defend life?
Who told my Special Forces
They could discriminate
All my people deserve
Love
Compassion
Care
Respect
And
Protection.
I have preached
The loudest
About loving thy neighbor
Of being a Good Samaritan
Which of these
Do my Special Forces
Not understand
Do they not understand
I gave my only son
For the imperfection
Of my people?


Mwaganu wa Kaggia 11-13-2004"

Comments

[wild-place-king.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

Yesterday morning I woke up very crabby and as I was shaving I was thinking of homeless people. I became even more angry the more I thought about the current political climate.

Related to the issue of HIV/AIDS is poverty and blatant disregard for anyone not in the "have more" group, I have a friend I've known for almost twenty years, since he was a parish priest in Harlem, NY. He is now a Bishop in the Evangelical Episcopal Church in America. Conveniently, he sent me an email yesterday morning and I replied with a short tirade, which follows:

Dear Bishop, There are so many Christians in the world today, everywhere! Why is there poverty? Why is there hunger? Why are there people left homeless? Why ignore AIDS?

I am not being accusatory – but, it doesn't make sense. If all Christians profess to have Christ's values and Christ's love, why don't they show it for God's sake and elimintate these modern day scourges? (Pun intended.)

My early morning rant for having to wake up and go to work!

Many Blessings,
B."

He has not responded yet, but, I know that he will.

As I always say, timing is everything.