To Him, from Me
In the development of humankind, however, people wanted to have rights over their own lands. This became a swift end to the peaceful cities, as communities dominated by warriors overwhelmed those attuned to peace. “Human evolution thus favored male-dominated warlike tribes that bred with no restraint.”
The poem From him to her (Ron Adler, Israeli, 1957-76, tr. Richard Flantz), “is the despairing cry of a young man looking at the work in progress of his own sex’s domination. He committed suicide shortly after the poem was written” in 1976. Male domination has taken many forms over the centuries, the domination over females being only one of them. In most religions, the Creator deities are predominantly male, in some cases accompanied by a female as if in pacification for that lesser species.
So this one is for the abused. This one is for the little girl that is crying, curled up in the closet asking, “Why me?” and praying that any god will hear, “Please don’t let him find me.” This one is for the young man, curled up in the shower asking, “Why me?” and praying that any god will hear, “Please don’t let him find me.” This is for the people, raising from the ash, purified by blood and tears; depending only on themselves because no god ever heard them. This is for the “thieves aged 14 and murderers aged 18”. It is for “victims from all of woman born”. It is for the slaves, the slaughtered, the crucified, the suffering. It is for nations destroyed. It is for Ron Adler, who felt he must commit suicide.
I am given the studies. I am shown the fact that suicide is the 8th leading cause of death in the United States. Suicides outnumber homicides 3:2. I take the numbers 16,516; the number of deaths due to suicide, twice the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS. That firearms are the most used form of ending one’s own life seems reasonable in a world that glorifies the Mighty Gun. More men kill themseves than women, a ratio of 4:1, 72% are white men, and 79% of all firearm suicides are committed by these white men. Perhaps men are more committed to the cause than their female counterparts, however, when 8-25 suicide attempts, mainly by women and youth, are made in comparison to each completion. Did some mother ever give to these men?- a gift of permission to cry, to accept the abuse of the past and relegate it to the realm of that which is gone?
I’ll take the fact that rape is committed. Perhaps the most insidious form of abuse, a method of taking from one that inner piece of themselves that they never show, rape is committed by and on both men and women, in and out of the marriage bed. New statutes towards marital rape have been formed, basically stating that it is prosecutable only if disfigurement or serious physical injury occur.
As for taking the plundered continents, wars, and exterminations, it seems that I would have no choice. London-based Amnesty International conducted a probing investigation into human rights in the United States. Ours is portrayed as being a humane country “with pockets of inhumanity where refugees are treated like prisoners, police officers use unnecessary force and restraints, and Death Row swells with more than 3,300 prisoners awaiting execution. Minorities are overrepresented in all categories.” Hundreds of women fleeing gender-based violence in their native countries, from genital mutilation to politically motivated rape, are detained as prisoners for months before seeing a judge to determine asylum. From L.A. to New York, police batons are used as first option rather than last resort, stun belts and pepper spray have made fantastic debuts. Amnesty International is pressing the U.S. for answers: Why is some genocide worthy of intervention, other genocide explained away as a cultural conflict? My own question- why is the United States holding back with only Somalia on ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Terrifyingly, the state of the world which Ron Adler lamented in 1976 has only, in my opinion, declined over the last 24 years. :Abuse of power usually starts with the powerless, and abuse left unchecked is guaranteed to spread- and begin to seem normal.” In relation to that “golden age” of Old Europe, where peace and women alike were prominently influential, 5000 years have passed. The warrior characteristics that still find a base in our culture, a mentality of conquer or kill, have ceased to be useful. They are threatening the survival of the human race. And no one will want us this way. Will they want us?
