KEEP SECULAR LAW

Many years ago, friends and I were walking down a street in the city of Aden. A city in what maps now referred to as the country of Yemen.  We were on shore leave for the day from our ship in the Tawahi district, known as "Steamer Point". The building fronts facing the hot sunlit dirty and dusty streets were nondescript. As we walked by a small alleyway, we could hear what sounded like animal torment with a human quality.  We turned into the heavy shadow investigates.  When we reached the end of the building, we realized we were looking through a wall of steel bars into a large cell. People in all states of dress, of all ages were everywhere in the cell, but of all the same sex: male. They were not packed into the room and seemed equidistant form one another. I could see an occasional bucket but that was all. Our appearance drew attention and enhanced the chorus of moaning we had heard from the street. Of course, we could not understand what they were saying but there extended hands clearly indicated their intent. We stood there with mouths open in disbelief for a moment then turned and left.  That scene left a life long impression. I had seen what it means to be in a hopeless situation.

Of course they could have been criminals but I saw what I considered to be man’s inhumanity to man. I chose to believe that they represented people who would accept any kind of government; all it had to be, to be acceptable, was to be different. I am unhappy with a few little indiscretions of my government and am willing to vote them out and get a different one—to change. Nevertheless, always in the recesses of my mind, I know how bad it can really get because I walked down that small heavily shaded alleyway and saw people who had no vote—people who live in a caliphate under the control of a merciful God. Give me America and secular law. Keep Sam Brownback, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reid, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and the like out of government.

URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated