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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Letters to Ukraine – 3

7 April, 2011 - 00:00

“Where are our intellectuals? Writers? Philosophers? Why are they silent?” That was the voice of Chornobyl evacuee Liudmyla Polianska. Who has answered her? Overshadowed by the events in Japan, Chornobyl’s 25th anniversary is approaching. Shall we now resolve to speak — for ourselves and, where appropriate, on behalf of the silenced? But radiation from wrecked reactors is a particular expression of something much larger. “Chornobyl” can take on many forms. It’s that contamination between peoples and nations, expressed through power or oppression. Or an education system that creates exclusion zones in the minds of our children. It’s that endless wait for the military to decay into something less inhuman, more enlightened. “Chornobyl” is a self-interested few deciding the fate of many. It’s our culture, depopulating the very places our artists would have us walk. I’ve been asked: “Why don’t the poets speak up?” Sadly, to be silenced today, most poets need do nothing more than publish a book and place it in full view on the library shelves. Our artists are speaking, but either say what we already know (which is one form of silence) or what we ignore because we’d rather not hear it (which creates another kind of silence). I wonder, is Fukushima the next silence? 

© Mario Petrucci 2011
By Mario Petrucci, award-winning poet, ecologist, physicist and avant-garde essayist
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