Thankful for the Difference - Poem by Raymond A. Foss

Stopping in our worship
offering up a praise
a thanksgiving for our freedom
thankful for the difference
what we take for granted
than over so much of the earth

Able to gather as a people
to debate freely, without fear
all of us as equals
hearing other voices
to reach a consensus, a decision
coming out of our freedoms
our voices, speaking as one

So unlike the stories
we are watching on the news
thankful for our freedoms
and the price paid for them
so many sacrificing
standing against oppression
serving our nation willingly
so we may enjoy our freedoms

March 6, 2011
All of the North Africa and Middle East coverage
versus the freedoms we share
such as our town’s School District Meeting
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/244046/new-teacher-contract-budget-approved?page=0,0
March 5, 2011
&
“Moammar Gadhafi's son speaks with CNN”
http://bit.ly/eZObIw
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saif-al-Islam-al-Gaddafi/10917256698
http://twitter.com/SaifGaddafi
Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi
http://twitter.com/NicRobertsonCNN
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nic-Robertson-CNN-Fan-Page/64870076458?ref=share
Nic Robertson
&
one of the all-time
great pictures, capturing evil, before it rose up to full flowering http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue9911/icon02.htm,
of Joseph Goebbels, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels,
on display at The Granary Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard
(http://www.granarygallery.com/),
taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898 - 1995),
http://artquarterly.com/artist.cfm?ID=16,
a master of black and white. Photojournalist of the century, http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue9911/eisieintro.htm.
&
Tweet about nighttime abductions in Tajoura district of Tripoli
http://alive.in/libya/2011/03/04/pro-government-attacking-houses-at-night-speak2tweet/
massacre in Zawiya
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/04/libya.conflict/index.html?hpt=T1
March 4, 2011
&
firing of tear gas on people coming out of prayers
in Tajoura neighborhood of Tripoli
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8362590/Police-fire-tear-gas-on-Tripoli-protest.html
March 4, 2011
&
the coming of a Friday day of prayers, which have been the days
of the largest protests in many of the countries in revolt
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/world/middleeast/05unrest.html?_r=1&hp
March 4, 2011
&
The ludicrous statements of Moammar Gaddafi
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/28/libya.protests/index.html?hpt=T1
February 28, 2011
The coverage of the sons of Muammar Qadhafi
with Christiane Amanpour
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/world_news&id=7983698
February 27, 2011
&
seeing the genocide in Libya
and hearing the rabbling of Gadhafi
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/02/22/bts.gadhafi.statement.libyanstate
2/22/2011
&
on the transformations since the beginning of January -
all the protests in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Oman,
Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Djibouti, Mauritania, Senegal, etc.
and
especially the resignation of Hosni Mubarak
February 11, 2011
&
and the jubilance in Tahrir Square
versus the bloodshed in Bahrain and Libya, etc.
February 18, 2011
&
hearing claim by President Obama 2/15/2011
in a news conference that when history books tell it
we will be seen as being on the right side of history
in how the United States responded
&
Post on Twitter by Wael Ghonim
http://twitter.com/Ghonim
“Our Revolution was like Wikipedia”
http://twitter.com/Ghonim/status/37306340103688192
http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/ghonim-our-revolution-wikipedia
February 14, 2011
&
Post on Twitter by Wael Ghonim
http://twitter.com/Ghonim
“This is Revolution 2.0: No one was a hero because everyone was a hero.”
http://twitter.com/Ghonim/status/36708161440190464
February 13, 2011

Copyright by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage.