On Bondage

On watching a remake of Roots I wondered,

How can mankind be so cruel?

We boast of our human status; however,

Whom are we really trying to fool?

What gives people the right to own others,

To treat them inhumanely, to beat them,

To whip them and separate them from their families,

To brutally rape and cruelly mistreat them,

To deprive them of their basic rights,

To kill them for trying to run away?

The enormity of such a blemish

On humanity still haunts us today.

How far did the practice go back?

Did early humans living in caves

Manage to round up other tribes,

Subjugate them, and make them their slaves?

Workers in many countries still toil

For very little--a pittance--for some it

Involves working in pitiful conditions.

If they're not slaves, they're not far from it.

But there were slaves in the Bible, you say.

Yes, along with killings and slaughters,

Stonings, beheadings, stabbings, beatings,

And a drunken Lot who slept with his daughters.

What causes mankind to be so cruel?

Economics? Money? Greed?

A darkness in the human heart?

An insecure ego? Something indeed.

Before we act so mighty and proud,

Let's put everything in perspective.

Undoing the results of thousands of years

Of slavery should be a major objective.

(6-12-16) By Bob B