They Do It To Themselves 5.7.2008 Poem by Margaret Alice

Unhappiness is getting me down, reading
of this man in an Austrian town keeping his
own daughter hostage in a dark cellar for
so many years – and though common sense
says, leave them to their own choices, I still
have to ask - how could it have happened?

I cannot understand, people say just ignore, it
happens only once every million years, watching
shows starring an unscrupulous heiress, how to
deal with the facts, if we are ALL free to make
our own choices - how did his captive daughter
lose her chance of making

Her choices herself? If this is a universe of
benevolence, if man is a rational being, how
can such situations develop, how can a man
victimize his own family in such a way – does
it matter to us? Yes it does, what does it say
about the freedom of ALL human life?

Allow people their freedom to hurt each other,
the way Africa has obtained its freedom from
homicide through Colonial governance - only
to slowly kill themselves though their self-
inflicted wounds – as long as they do it to
themselves?