My Neighbor

Over in Apartment Three, just across the hall from me,

lives a man of mystery, not the sort I like to see.

He has a funny sounding name, and our skin is not the same.

no, it’s not he that I distain, and I, of course, should not complain.

He’s not an ordinary gent, I’d have to say he’s different,

no, I’m not intolerant, but he seems to me irreverent.

He worships on a different day, and in a very different way,

if it were up to me to say, I have never even seen him pray.

I know nothing of his work, a surreptitious clerk,

wherever does he lurk, slipping through the murk?

He might be a Socialist, or a sneaky terrorist.

that shifty look I missed, with the clenching of his fist,

With everything I saw, could he have broke the law?

now my suspicions gnaw, deep within my craw.

Report him I must, in the State I do trust,

his thoughts are unjust, his error must be crushed.

A statement I have sworn, he is rotten to the core,

the authorities I must warn, soon they knock upon his door.

Shortly after his arrest, major charges are assessed,

my neighbor has transgressed, his thoughts must be suppressed.

The wicked man is put a way, and I’m the hero of the day,

but I, too, have a dossier, I am now the regime’s prey.

I have been denounced, for the thoughts I have pronounced,

the gendarmes on me pounce, on my liberty they trounce.

Oh, why did I deviate, from the teaching of the State?

No one left to mediate, for me it is just too late.

LDT Jan 29, ‘22

          Governor Youngkin of Virginia has set up a Tip Line for parents to report “divisive’ teaching in public schools. Presumably, this will enable him to dictate what is taught. This is freakishly similar to the way the Nazis controlled the indoctrination of their children. Nazi education was designed to promote loyalty to the State. It reinforced the Nazi ideals of extreme nationalism, the superiority of the Aryan race and the need for racial purity. Children were urged to report/denounce educators who did not conform to Nazi standards. I am reminded of Martin Niemöller’s classic poem, “At First They Came for the Jews”. If we do not stand up for freedom of expression for all, we will eventually lose our own freedoms.

Main Menu: http://www.azrockdodger.com

Blog Sign-up: https://azrockdodger.com/blog/