8 Friday, November 9, 1979

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Concerned Citizens for Cambodia Set Rally

Organized on a non-
sectarian, inter-racial and
multi-religious basis, Con-
cerned Citizens for Cam-
bodia have organized a rally
for 2:30 p.m. Sunday at
.Kennedy Square to show
Detroit's concern for the
people of Cambodia.
Speakers at the rally will
include Detroit Mayor
Coleman Young, Governor
William Milliken, State
Supreme Court Justice G.
Mennen Williams and other
leaders from the religious

and black communities,
who will join in appeals for
aid for the hundreds of
thousands of sufferers in
Southeast Asia.
Mayor Young and Gov.
Milliken will participate in
the starting of a petition
drive urging the responsible
authorities in Cambodia to
allow immediate delivery of
food and medical supplies.
The rally sponsors
hope to educate the
community to the
tragedy occurring in

Cambodia and apply
public pressure on the
Cambodian authorities.
According to Larry
Brenners, one of the or-
ganizers who is a sur-
vivor of the Nazis'
Mauthausen concentra-
tion camp, "We must not
remain silent. The •
genocide by starvation in
Cambodia must be stop-
ped immediately.
"The agonizing suffer-
ings, starvation and deaths
bring painful recollections

THE GRAND OLE DAME

The morning light and she still was there
Caressing the broken branches here and there
Youth heals so very well
When love and kindness sets the pace
And so it was
The child healed well in loving arms.
And soon joined in song and play
Her companions of the day. -

Straight, ramrod straight, her head
Among the heavenly clouds
This lady of the forest
the grand ole dame
Raised high her head
Far into the lofty sky

A relic of another age
So fine, so sturdy so upright
All alone, among her race
She stood the test of time's embrace.

And then one fateful day
Nature in all her fury
Bore down at tree top level
In one great and violent burst
The grand ole dame was rooted out
And fell smashing to the earth.

Her friends had withered all away
Slowly yielding to the fates
Till now she stood, the last
And most elegant of her proud race.
A true aristocrat, forgotten in the pace
Of time that had passed her by.

In her last gasp of breath
She brushed aside the children dear
With arms still bruised and broken
So that her very weight would not destroy
Her children that she had loved so much.

Not once did she disdain
To bow her head
In greetings with a welcome smile.
Not once did she disdain to speak to
The little children that round her milled
The yearly saplings that shot up
To form a ring of joy around her' roots.

The forest now was stilled in calm
Not a single whisper could be heard
No longer did the children play
In song and dance in their lusty way.

A miracle, the legends say
Around the edges of their friend
They gathered, solemn and austere
And bowed down their heads to eve her cheer.

The children saplings played all day
"Ring around the rosie" did they sway.
They laughed, reached out their branches
To each other to dance in step
As the gentle winds caressedtheir boughs.
In movement, rhythm to and fro
Till all their strength was spent
From their branches when the day was low.

•In one single day 'tis said
Their leaves so short grew long and strong
To stretch across their fallen friend
And further yet their heads bent down
To guard the loved one that they lost.

The children sang out each day then
As the winds moved thru swaying arms
But in the nite soft murmur flowed
Between them, in whispers soft and low
To not disturb their lofty friend on high.

And if perchance you wandered by and listened close
The words were plain to practiced ears.
She is old, do not disturb her sleep"
For many in the nite had heard her weep.

.

The children swayed with every welcome wind
The sun brought out their faces to shine
With warmth and gladness ever flowing in their veins
They gamboled on the green
As children ever do.

One nite a wind, unknown before
Came crashing down in fury full
A crashing, wrenching, twisting noise rang out
A sapling much taller than the rest
Cried out in fearful pain, from out its stem
The head lay broken, hung by such a slender thread
A deep endless sigh and then no more.

The grand ole dame looked down at once
And knew exactly what took place.
She bowed her head and curved her back.
With gentle arms she grasped the broken limb
And lifted it gently into proper place
Field there in firm embrace until
The life blood flowed once again
And there was a smile upon her face.

No mother cradled with more gentle arms
To give succor to a child in pain
All nite she held its head in place
And whispered healing murmurs
Kissed it with love upon its face.

All nite she cooed soft words
Unto the ailing child.

And then they wept; giant gushing tears
As if by signal they poured down
Upon the earth where their friend lay.
Some say their leaves were thus transformed
To weeping willows- with hanging heads and hair astray.

The earth reached out with loving arms
To welcome home a friend so loved
Who came back to earth from whence she grew
To find a place so soft and true
To rest forever among her kind.

Myths and legends come and go
In time they even grow and grow
Until they overthrow the truth
And who can say with absolute
When fiction ends and truth comes forth.

Go then yourself and see and hear
To quench your thirst of what may be
The living legend of the truth
The weeping willows guarding well
The one they loved in their bosom swell
They still are there just where she fell.

The legends say and truth bears out
At midnite there is a sudden still
Some say they can plainly hear
The tears so large still falling down
In never ending flow of that great grief
For one they cherished so very dear.

And that is how the legends say
That this did happen bye and bye
The weeping willows learned to cry.

And who can doubt to this very day
That forest children breathe the air
They live, they love, they cry and die
Even as you and I.
Maurice Croll, M.D.
July, 1977

of our own experiences dur-
ing the Nazi Holocaust. It is
our human and moral re-
sponsibility to act now," he
said.
Cooperating in the rally
are the Jewish Community
Council, the Christian
Communication Council,
Shaarit Haplaytah, the Ar-
chdiocese of Detroit and the
the
Detroit Round Tab)
of
National Confer,
Christians and Jews.
Plans for the rally were
formulated Tuesday and
Wednesday at meetings at
the Southfield home of Dr.
and Mrs. John Mames.
For rally information,
call Dr. Fred Minkow, 851-
9276, or Dr. Mames, 353-
0434 or 561-5504.

* * *

UNITED NATIONS i•
(JTA) — Israel declared
Monday that "firm actions,
and not just words" are
needed to help the Cambo-
dian people and pledged to
participate in the
humanitarian efforts to
save the starving people of
Cambodia.
Addressing the Pledg-
ing Conference for
Emergency Humanita-
Han Relief to the People
of Kampuchea (Cam-
bodia), Yehuda Blum, Is-
rael's ambassador to the -
UN, said Israel will con-
sider sending further
medical teams to Cam-
bodia "as circumstances
dictate" in addition to the
team and the two tons of
medical supplies and
equipment that have
been sent already. He
said the cost of those
measures is estimated at
about $55,000.
In addition, Blum told the
conference that Israeli citi-
zens have contributed about
$500,000 for aid to the
Cambodian people and the
campaign is still far from
finished."
The people of Israel, "who
have known what it is to
suffer and to be refugees,
could not remain unmoved
by this human drama," the
Israeli envoy added, noting
that "there is no more noble
task, nor any more urgent,
before us today" than to
help the Cambodian people.
He said "Israel wholeheart-
edly endorses the efforts
currently undertaken by
the United Nations to alle-
viate the suffering P C the
Kampuchean people

Israeli Teaching
Technique for
Canadians?

MONTREAL (JTA) —
The Canadian government
has expressed keen interest
in a cultural agreement
with Israel that would
further the application in
Canada of an Israeli-
developed technique to in- -
crease the learning poten-
tial of retarded persons and -
others.
The technique, pioneere
Ey Dr. Reuven Feuerstein of
the International Research
Institute in Jerusalem,
would be introduced into'
the Education and Training
Division of the Correctional