Courtroversy

(comparing the respective sentences of protestor Daniel Burns
and military interrogator, Lewis Welshofer Jr.)

Six months in jail a protestor must serve
For upholding his First Amendment right.
He thought the war was wrong, and had the nerve
To mount resistance to military might.

The system felt the smart this David dared
In kicking Empire in its tender rear,
Insisting that the innocents be spared,
Refusing homage to Goliath's spear.

He prayed before recruiters, poured his blood,
Calling to memory how the Son of Man,
His soul immersed in melancholy flood,
Whose sweat was blood, whose blood in rivers ran,

Being in agony, for agony to come,
Prayed to the Father in Gethsemane
Before he hung, Death's sting to overcome,
Disarmed its power and authority.

Both felt the spite of Power which exacts
Its legalistic framework to condemn
The Holy Spirit coursing in courageous acts
And which strives to suppress and silence them.

Meanwhile, a murderer gets a two-month spell,
Token conviction for the crime far worse
Of strangling a prisoner in his cell,
And's but confined to office, home,…and church.

So ruled the military jury, and
The military court applauded the result.
The system's satisfied, we understand.
Justice is done, while generals exult.

From this conviction unconvincing know
A slap on the wrist, a wink and a nod,
Are all the price that soldiers undergo
To get away with murder serving God.

January 2006