THAT SOUND…
(Publication
Date: March 21, 2007)
That sound will continue to ring in my ears for a long time…
I did not want to hear it;
in fact, I could have pretended not to hear it.
However, my interest in the source of the sound prompted me to respond sensitively.
The result was the picture below.
***
You may have noticed that lately I have taken a break from writing about politics or the Cyprus issue.
The reason is that I am trying to keep my distance.
Yes, you read that correctly!
I am trying to keep my distance…
I am trying to keep my distance because I am tired of the EU’s hypocritical policies.
I am trying to keep my distance because I do not like my country’s Prime Minister calling a political party leader a “hypocrite and a slanderer,” or that party leader responding in the same tone and using those words.
I am trying to keep my distance because it seems to me that the political party governing my country has nothing whatsoever to do with my values.
I am trying to keep my distance because thinking about how the Ministry of National Education is raising our children, and commenting on it, makes me pessimistic.
I am trying to keep my distance because when I speak about all this, the parties concerned trivialize the issue and rush to cover up the truth with (so-called) accusations such as “conspiracy theory,” “opposition to a solution,” and “nationalism.”
Naturally, this approach does not sit well with me.
The irrational things being done are having a negative effect on my mental health.
As if all this were not enough, the excuses the parties concerned make for actions that run counter to society’s values also cause the saying “the apology is worse than the offense” to run through my brain cells.
Yes, I am trying to keep my distance…
No matter how little I succeed, and no matter how much I am involved!
*
Another event that makes me keep my distance is something that happened in our country and upset me deeply.
Let me try to tell you about it with the photograph below: I took this photograph on Monday, March 19, 2007, at 11:05 a.m. in the industrial area.
The living creature in the photograph, described as “stray,” was close to death.
The process that brought it to this state began with poisoning; I do not know who did it.
The poison it had been given had left it weak and made its moans, cries of agony, grow louder.
Right in front of me, a living creature was struggling to die!
All it could do was moan, crying out that it was about to die.
Not a single cell in its body was moving.
In its moans, it was trying to say something: It was crying out that it did not know why it was being treated with such hostility.
It was saying that it had done nothing, that it had nowhere to go, nowhere to take shelter, and that was why it wandered around this area; if it had another chance, it would never commit that unknown crime again.
It was bidding farewell to this life—to its memories, its loved ones, its sweethearts, those who loved it, its loves…
At that moment, it was full of “if onlys.”
It was saying, “If only I hadn’t eaten that thing they put in front of me (whatever it was)…”
It was cursing those who had taken its life for no reason.
It was asking the people who had once loved it, “Where are you now?”
It was crying over the hostility directed at it, for reasons it did not know.
It was saying farewell to the world with the last sound waves, the last vibrations it left behind…
*
I spoke to the people nearby who were trying to save the creature about who had poisoned it.
According to them, the LTB had poisoned it during the night.
I contacted the LTB Health Department and asked them about the incident.
According to the information I received from the department, LTB teams do not operate this way.
LTB teams do not poison them; when such creatures (strays) are aggressive, they sedate them and take them to shelters.
That is the information I was given, and this is for the attention of anyone who has incorrect information on the matter.
They also asked me where the creature was, and said they would look into it. From what I learned in a phone call with them just now, the creature was rescued by veterinarians from the LTB Health Department and taken to a shelter.
The creature was saved; but the people who drove it to suffer all this—that is, the people who poisoned it—are still among us.
I will not say, “How could anyone be so cruel?” or “What are you doing, for heaven’s sake?”
The only thing I will ask is, “What did that creature do to deserve this? And/or does any living creature in the world deserve to be treated this way?”
See you on Friday…
Be respectful in traffic!
All texts and other content on this page are original and belong to Cem KAR. They may not be used, even in part, in any print or other electronic medium (CD, Internet, etc.) without permission.