Vergangenheitsbewaltigung is German for “the burden of the past.” It’s a majestic looking word comprising a visual onomatopoeia. Centuries old resentments bottled into a Saint- Emilion of poison. The Bosnian Serb conflict rose up with the fall of Tito. Before was the massacre of Armenians by Turks. Hutus murdering Tutsis in Rwanda are one of many genocides There are no shortage of tyrants from Savonarola to Robespierre and Idi Amin to manage the gallows. Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor puts Christ on trial. Of course there have been Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa and Tunisia. There was the Marshall Plan which subsidized the rebuilding of Germany. It was a far cry from the punitive Versailles Treaty which can be credited for the rise of huge inflation in Weimar Germany, then fascism. Sound familiar? Now Trump has taken away protections for John Bolton and Anthony Fauci. Will retribution make America great again? It’s an ontogenic as well as phylogenetic question whether to adjudicate or hold out an olive branch. It all comes down to the 23rd psalm.Thou prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
read "Pet Buddha" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn
listen to James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti singing "It's a Man's World"
and listen to "I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Wants to Dance)" by Tina Charles (1975)
and listen to "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne with Belinda Carlisle
and listen to "Twenty-Five Miles From Home" by Edwin Starr
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