LEGITIMATION
By Al Staggs

 NO ONE REALLY FIRED A SHOT
OR COMMITTED AN EVIL DEED
NO HATEFUL WORDS WERE SPOKEN.
PEOPLE WERE STILL KIND-SPIRITED
GENEROUS,
TAKING CARE OF THEIR FAMILIES,
CIVIC DUTIES,
WORK.
THEY REMAINED
RELIGIOUS.

FROM THESE KIND, GENEROUS, RESPONSIBLE,
RELIGIOUS CITIZENS
COMES THE MOST INSIDIOUS EVIL,
THE EVIL OF SILENCE,
OF PRETENDING TO KNOW LITTLE,
OF SUPPORTING THE INJUSTICE
WITH THEIR VOTE.

NO RIGHT OF THEIRS WAS TAKEN
NO JOB OF THEIRS WAS LOST
NO CHILD OF THEIRS WENT HUNGRY
THEIR HEALTH CARE WAS SECURE
THEIR TAXES COVERED BY EXEMPTIONS, DEDUCTIONS
THEIR WEALTH SECURED.

SITTING IN THEIR HOLY, HALLOWED HALLS
OF WORSHIP
HIDING FROM THE HORRORS
OF DESTITUTION
SUSTAINED BY THEIR PASSIVE, SINFUL SILENCE.

After serving for 24 years as a Baptist minister, Al Staggs began a new ministry in 1994 as a performance artist, lecturer, and humorist. He has performed his original one-person stage play on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer all across the United States and Canada. His poetry, including “Legitimation” printed here, grows out of the influence of Bonhoeffer’s life and legacy. Stagg has degrees from Hardin Simmons University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Harvard Divinity School; and he is now a doctoral candidate at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Vicki, live in San Antonio, Texas and are the parents of two children, Ryan and Rebekah.

Updated Thursday, December 27, 2001