Eskişehir, Türkiye
Friday 28 March 2024
Above: Crucifixion of rebel leaders by the Carthaginians in 238 BC, Victor-Armand Poirson, 1890
Standing in the dock at Southampton
Trying to get to Holland or France
The man in the Mac said, “You’ve got to go back“
You know, they didn’t even give us a chance
Above: Southampton Docks, England
(CHORUS)
Christ, you know it ain’t easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They’re gonna crucify me
Above: Christ Crucified, Diego Velazquez, 1632
Finally, made the plane into Paris
Honeymooning down by the Seine
Above: Seine River, Paris, France
Peter Brown called to say, “You can make it okay
You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain“
Above: Gibraltar
Above: Peter Brown, former manager of the Beatles
(CHORUS)
Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton
Talking in our beds for a week
The news people said, “Say what you doing in bed“
I said, “We’re only trying to get us some peace“
Above: Amsterdam Hilton, The Netherlands
(CHORUS)
Saving up your money for a rainy day
Giving all your clothes to charity
Last night the wife said, “Poor boy, when you’re dead
You don’t take nothing with you but your soul“
Above: Ono and Lennon leaving Amsterdam in March 1969
Made a lightning trip to Vienna
Eating chocolate cake in a bag
The newspaper said, “She’s gone to his head
They look just like two gurus in drag”
Above: Vienna (Wien), Austria (Österreich)
(CHORUS)
Caught the early plane back to London
50 acorns tied in a sack
The men from the press said, “We wish you success
It’s good to have the both of you back“
(CHORUS)
John Lennon, The Beatles, “The Ballad of John and Yoko“, 1969
Lennon wrote the song while he and Ono were on their honeymoon in Paris.
It describes the events of the couple’s wedding, in March 1969, and highly publicised honeymoon activities, including their “Bed-In” at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel and their demonstration of “bagism” (a satire of prejudice, where by living in a bag a person could not be judged on their bodily appearance).
Above: John Lennon (1940 – 1980) and Yoko Ono, Amsterdam bed-in, 25 – 31 March 1969
In an interview with Alan Smith of NME (New Musical Express) published in May 1969, Lennon described the ballad as “Johnny B. Paperback Writer” (a mix between “Johnny B. Goode” and “Paperback Writer“) in a 1980 interview, he said it was “a piece of journalism“.
Lennon took the song to Paul McCartney at the latter’s home in St. John’s Wood, London, on 14 April, eager to record it that evening.
Recalling the controversy engendered by Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” remarks in 1966, McCartney was alarmed at the references to Christ in the new song but agreed to assist Lennon.
Above: Paul McCartney, 2021
(“More popular than Jesus” is part of a remark made by John Lennon of the Beatles in a March 1966 interview in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus, and that Christianity was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music.
His opinions drew little controversy when originally published in the London newspaper The Evening Standard, but drew angry reactions from Evangelical Christian communities when republished in the United States that July.
Lennon’s comments incited protests and threats, particularly throughout the Bible Belt in the southern United States.
Above: (in red) the approximate “Bible Belt“
Some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs.
Records were publicly burned.
Press conferences were cancelled.
The controversy coincided with the band’s 1966 US tour and overshadowed press coverage of their newest album, Revolver.
Lennon later repeatedly apologised and clarified at a series of press conferences that he was not comparing himself or the band to Christ.
The controversy exacerbated the band’s unhappiness with touring, which they never undertook again.
Lennon also refrained from touring in his solo career.)
(In 1980, John Lennon was murdered by a fan of the Beatles, Mark David Chapman, who later cited Lennon’s quote as one of his motives in the killing.
In New York, at approximately 5:00 p.m. on 8 December 1980, Lennon autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman before leaving the Dakota apartment building with Ono for a recording session at the Record Plant.
After the session, Lennon and Ono returned to the Dakota in a limousine at around 10:50 p.m. (EST).
They left the vehicle and walked through the archway of the building.
Chapman then shot Lennon twice in the back and twice in the shoulder at close range.
Lennon was rushed in a police cruiser to the emergency room of Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:15 p.m.)
Above: Wintertime at Strawberry Fields in Central Park with the Dakota in the background
Ono later said:
“Paul knew that people were being nasty to John, and he just wanted to make it well for him.
Paul has a very brotherly side to him.“
Above: Paul McCartney, 1964
In his review of the single in the NME, John Wells said he found “The Ballad of John and Yoko” profoundly moving as an account of people’s attitude towards Lennon and Ono, and only the “raw, earthy rock” backing stopped him succumbing to tears.
He described it as a “stormer“.
Several US radio stations declined to broadcast the song because of the use of the words “Christ” and “crucify” in the chorus.
The word “Christ” was censored (by being “bleeped out“) for radio airplay in Australia.
Above: The Christ Pantocrator, St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, 6th century
The Spanish government under Franco objected to the song because of the phrase “Gibralter near Spain“.
The status of Gibraltar is a long-running subject of debate between Spain and the United Kingdom.
Alex Petridis of the Guardian ranks the song last of the Beatles’ 22 UK singles, saying:
“John Lennon once convened a meeting of the Beatles to inform them that he was Jesus:
The charmless ‘Ballad of John and Yoko’ is that crazed egotism and messiah complex wrought into song.“
In the Christian West today is Good (or Holy) Friday, the day that the faith’s namesake was crucified for the sins of mankind.
Above: Entombment of Christ, Caravaggio, 1603
According to the accounts in the Gospels (the first four books of the New Testament of the Christian Bible), the royal soldiers, guided by Jesus’ disciple Judas Iscariot, arrested Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Judas received money (30 pieces of silver) for betraying Christ and told the guards that whomever Judas kisses is the one they are to arrest.
Above: The Judas Kiss, Gustave Doré, 1866
Following his arrest, Jesus was taken to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas.
There he was interrogated with little result and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest where the Sanhedrin (a high council of legislative and judicial Jews) had assembled.
Conflicting testimony against Jesus was brought forth by many witnesses, to which Jesus answered nothing.
Finally the high priest adjured Jesus to respond under solemn oath, saying:
“I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?”
Jesus testified ambiguously:
“You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven.”
The high priest condemned Jesus for blasphemy.
The Sanhedrin concurred with a sentence of death.
Above: The Sanhedrin, from People’s Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (1883)
Peter, another of Jesus’ disciples, waiting in the courtyard, also denied Jesus three times to bystanders while the interrogations were proceeding just as Jesus had foretold.
Above: The Denial of Peter, Gerard Seghers, 1625
In the morning, the whole assembly brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate (r. 26 – 36) under charges of subverting the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, and making himself a king.
Pilate authorized the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own law and execute sentencing.
However, the Jewish leaders replied that they were not allowed by the Romans to carry out a sentence of death.
Pilate questioned Jesus and told the assembly that there was no basis for sentencing.
Above: Christ before Pilate, Mihahy Munkacsy, 1881
Upon learning that Jesus was from Galilee, Pilate referred the case to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod (20 BC – AD 39), who was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast.
Herod questioned Jesus but received no answer.
Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate.
Above: Herod Antipas medallion
Pilate told the assembly that neither he nor Herod found Jesus to be guilty.
Pilate resolved to have Jesus whipped and released.
Under the guidance of the chief priests, the crowd asked for Barabbas, who had been imprisoned for committing murder during an insurrection.
Pilate asked what they would have him do with Jesus, and they demanded:
“Crucify him.”
Pilate’s wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day, and she forewarned Pilate to “have nothing to do with this righteous man.“
Pilate had Jesus flogged and then brought him out to the crowd to release him.
Above: Flagellation of Christ, Peter Paul Rubens
The chief priests informed Pilate of a new charge, demanding Jesus be sentenced to death “because he claimed to be God’s son.”
This possibility filled Pilate with fear.
He brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came.
Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declared Jesus innocent and washed his own hands in water to show he had no part in this condemnation.
Nevertheless, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall a riot.
Above: Ecce Homo (with Jesus and Pontius Pilate), Antonio Ciseri (1850)
The sentence written upon his cross was “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews“.
Jesus carried his cross to the site of execution (assisted by Simon of Cyrene), called the “place of the Skull“, or “Golgotha” in Hebrew and in Latin “Calvary“.
Above: Simon of Cyrene stained glass window at St. Peter’s Church, Limours, France
There Christ was crucified along with two criminals.
Jesus agonized on the cross for six hours.
During his last three hours on the cross, from noon to 3 pm, darkness fell over the whole land.
In the gospels of Mathew and Mark, Jesus is said to have spoken from the cross, quoting the messianic Psalm 22:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?“
With a loud cry, Jesus gave up his spirit.
There was an earthquake, tombs broke open, and the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom.
The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declared:
“Truly this was God’s Son!“
Above: Icon of the Crucifixion, 16th century, Stavronikita Monastery, Mount Athos
Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and a secret follower of Jesus, who had not consented to his condemnation, went to Pilate to request the body of Jesus.
Above: 14th century Byzantine Icon of the Descent from the Cross from the Church of Saint Marina, Kalopanagiotis, Cyprus – Joseph of Arimathea is the figure standing in the center, in blue-green robes holding the body of Christ.
Another secret follower of Jesus and member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus brought about a hundred-pound weight mixture of spices and helped wrap the body of Jesus.
Pilate asked confirmation from the centurion of whether Jesus was dead.
A soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a lance causing blood and water to flow out.
The centurion informed Pilate that Jesus was dead.
Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and placed it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock in a garden near the site of the crucifixion.
Nicodemus also brought 75 pounds of myrhh and aloes and placed them in the linen with the body, in keeping with Jewish burial customs.
Above: Nicodemus helping to take down Jesus’ body from the cross, The Deposition, Mıchelangelo, 1555
They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb.
Then they returned home and rested, because Shabbat (Sabbath) had begun at sunset.
Above: An empty tomb
I do not desire to either condone nor condemn any system of belief.
I merely record that which is written in Wikipedia.
There are many aspects of this story and this faith difficult for this heathen barbarian to wrap his head around.
Above: The Thinker, Auguste Rodin, 1904
Only Christianity claims its founder to be God the Son.
The Trinity notion of God being both singular and triad simultaneously is a perplexing notion best explained by theologians.
Judaism maintains a tradition of monotheism that excludes the possibility of a Trinity.
In Judaism, God is understood to be the absolute one, indivisible, and incomparable being which is the ultimate cause of all existence.
Above: Collection of Judaica (clockwise from top): candlesticks for Shabbat, a cup for ritual handwashing, a Chumash (the Torah in book form) and a Tanakh (Jewish scripture), a Torah pointer, a shofar (horn) and an etrog (yellow citron used in ceremonies) box
Islam considers Jesus to be a prophet, but not divine.
God is absolutely indivisible (a concept known as tawhid).
Several verses of the Qu’ran state that the doctrine of the Trinity is blasphemous.
Above: The Kaaba during Hajj, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
I think what affects me most, without questioning Christianity as a faith and the importance of Easter as a main tenet of this religion, is something that has been part of humanity’s character as far back as the beginning of recorded history and probably prior to this, the intolerance for dissent and disagreeement.
It amazes me that Barabbas’ crimes of insurrection and murder were considered more pardonable than a good man’s claim to be divine.
How eager mankind is to spill blood.
How intolerant we are of those who have the courage to disagree with us.
Above: Barabbas representation in The Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910
In the United States, a handful of people may remember that the execution of Edith and Julius Rosenberg was pronounced on this day in 1953, during the height of “the Red scare“.
Above: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 1951
“I consider your crime worse than murder.
I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualities exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason.
Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country.
No one can say that we do not live in a constant state of tension.
We have evidence of your treachery all around us every day for the civilian defence activities throughout the nation are aimed at preparing us for an atom bomb attack.“
(US Judge Irving Kaufman sentencing the Rosenberg spies, 20 March 1953)
Above: Irving Kaufman (1910 – 1992)
Julius (1918 – 1953) and Edith Rosenberg (1915 – 1953), two New York Communists, were convicted in 1953 of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union in 1944 and 1945, thus hastening the Soviet acquisition of the atomic bomb.
Ethel’s brother David Greenglass (1922 – 2014), who supplied them with documents from the US secret nuclear research centre at Los Alamos, New Mexico, was given a 15-year sentence, but the Rosenbergs were both executed in June 1953.
Above: David Greenglass, 1950
Many considered their penalty harsh insofar as the information obtained was relatively insignificant and they had not been charged with treason.
Some claimed that the Rosenbergs were victims of anti-Semitism.
Above: David Greenglass’s sketch of an implosion-type nuclear weapon design, illustrating what he allegedly gave the Rosenbergs to pass on to the Soviet Union
Among those to speak out against the sentence we Pope Pius XII (1876 – 1958), Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980) and Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), but the voices of dissent could make little impact against the clamour that characterized the period of the Korean War (1950 – 1953) and the “Red Scare” in US political and cultural life.
Above: The hammer and sickle, a symbol of Communism
On 19 June 1953, Julius died from the first electric shock.
Ethel’s execution did not go smoothly.
After she was given the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Ethel’s heart was still beating.
Two more electric shocks were applied, and at the conclusion eyewitnesses reported that smoke rose from her head.
The funeral services were held in Brooklyn on 21 June.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were buried at Wellwood Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Pinelawn, New York.
The Times reported that 500 people attended and some 10,000 stood outside:
“The bodies had been brought from Sing Sing prison by the national “Rosenberg committee” which undertook the funeral arrangements, and an all-night vigil was held in one of the largest mortuary chapels in Brooklyn.
Many hundreds of people filed past the biers.
Most of them clearly regarded the Rosenbergs as martyred heroes.
More than 500 mourners attended the service, while a crowd estimated at 10,000 stood outside in the burning heat.
Mr. Bloch [their counsel], who delivered one of the main orations, bitterly exclaimed that America was “living under the heel of a military dictator garbed in civilian attire”:
Above: Funeral of the Rosenbergs, Wellwood Cemetery, Pinelawn, New York, 21 June 1953
(I have heard similar things said regarding some of today’s world leaders.)
The Rosenbergs were “sweet, tender and intelligent” and the course they took was one of “courage and heroism.”
Above: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, 1950
In 1953, socialist historian W.E.B. Du Bois (1868 – 1963) wrote a poem titled “The Rosenbergs“, which began “Crucify us, vengeance of God, as we crucify two more Jews” and ended “Who has been crowned on yonder stair? Red resurrection? Or black despair?“
Above: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 – 1963)
Today more Americans commemorate today as National Vietnam War Veterans Day – the anniversary of the day when the last US troops left Vietnam.
Above: The Vietnam War Memorial
Here we find another tormenting problem:
Why is the taking of life on the battlefield considered an honourable act while we judge the taking of life away from the conflict of war to be murder?
Why do we consider the first patriotic and the second immoral?
Above: Vanity Piece, Hendrick Andriessen, 1650
In Chile, there are groups that think of this day as “the Day of the Young Combatant” (Día del joven combatiente), which serves as a remembrance of the assassination of brothers Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo, who were killed on that date in 1985 during the military dictatorship (1973 – 1990) in Chile.
The brothers were allegedly members of a left-wing, anti-dictatorship insurgent group.
At dusk on Friday, 29 March 1985, the brothers Eduardo (20) and Rafael (18) Vergara Toledo — militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and four other militants, two men and two women, went to a local bakery to attack it “with the aim of extracting funds to finance the fight against the military government.”
(Is an attack on a bakery patriotic?
Is the killing of criminals justifiable because we are “the good guys“?)
On the way to the warehouse, a group of police officers — made up of Second Lieutenant Álex Ambler
Hinojosa, Jorge Marín Jiménez, Marcelo Muñoz Cifuentes and Nelson Toledo Puente – who were carrying out an operation at the intersection of Las Rejas and 5 de Abril Avenues, intercepted them.
The Vergara Toledo brothers fled and were caught in an alley of Villa Robert Kennedy, where they were murdered.
It was reported by the press that the brothers had shot at the police officers on several occasions, who had proceeded to shoot them in self-defense.
However, and as stated in the letter received by the general director of Carabineros Rodolfo Stange Oelkers, this information was confusing and contradictory, not coinciding with respect to the specific location of the events, the situation in which it occurred, or the type of confrontation occurred.
With this background, the hypothesis was raised that these young people had been murdered for political reasons.
In this regard, in its official report the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (better known as the “Rettig Commission“) concluded:
“The Commission has come to the conviction that Rafael Vergara was executed by state agents, already injured and in the power of those who killed him, in violation of his human rights.
Regarding his brother, Eduardo Vergara, since the Commission was unable to determine the precise circumstances in which the confrontation occurred or the participation that he had had, it considers that he died as a victim of the situation of political violence.”
Among the confirmed information, it appears that the Vergara Toledo brothers were chased and tried to flee through the streets of Estación Central.
Later they were intercepted and cornered, and at Las Rejas and 5 de Abril Avenues, were shot by police armed with a SIG 510-4 rifle, an Uzi submachine gun and their service weapons.
According to the expert reports, Eduardo Vergara Toledo died with injuries that correspond to gunshot wounds to the back and left side.
According to the judicial investigation and that of the aforementioned Commission, Rafael Vergara Toledo would have been injured and executed moments later by his captors.
The bodies of both brothers were abandoned on public roads.
The MIR leadership decided to commemorate the “Day of the Young Combatant” on 29 March in honor of the Vergara Toledo brothers.
This date would generally represent the young people of the resistance during the 1980s, with a different nuance than the commemoration of the victims during the first years of the military dictatorship.
Currently, the date is spontaneously commemorated by various groups, many of them not linked to the MIR.
The main objective of this commemoration is to raise awareness about human rights and investigate various cases of extrajudicial killings that occurred during the dictatorship.
The detractors of the commemoration of this day argue that every year there are demonstrations, protests, disorders and violent confrontations with the police in various towns in Santiago and in other places in the country, as well as in some universities, with massive arrests of protesters, many of them hooded, who carry out acts of vandalism, such as barricades, fires, looting, shootings and other incidents on public roads.
The acts of violence include throwing rocks at buildings, vehicles, and the police, as well as fire-bombing using Molotov cocktails.
The targets of this violence are not limited to public and government buildings but also extend to private property and commercial enterprises such as electrical wiring and power stations.
These actions are sometimes used as a cover for looting and other deliberate violent acts committed by organized groups.
Most of the violent protests occur in the Villa Francia neighborhood of western Santiago, where the Vergara Toledo family resided.
While some commemorations in Chile involve peaceful marches, the Day of the Young Combatant has gained notoriety for its association with violent actions carried out by masked protesters, leading certain sectors to dub the event as “the Day of the Young Delinquent” (Día del joven delincuente).
Local media and government agencies typically issue warnings to the public, advising them to stay indoors and expect power outages, especially in the Villa Francia neighborhood.
Several institutions, including universities, often end classes early on this day to ensure that students can return home before nightfall when most of the violent attacks occur.
Public transportation is also often limited due to frequent attacks on public buses.
Above: Memorial de la Villa Francia, Estancion Central, Santiago, Chile
And here in Eskişehir, two days before the nation’s cities hold their mayorial elections, I read with puzzlement a WhatsApp post from yesterday from a colleague:
“Hello, tomorrow is Fancy Black Friday.
Please wear your fancy black clothes.“
I search the Internet but cannot find a single reference to “Fancy Black Friday“.
Some idea concocted by HR or marketing?
For what purpose?
Don’t know.
Just do what you are told.
It doesn’t have to make sense.
Sıgh.
Above: Sazova Park, Eskişehir, Türkiye
In the West, black is commonly associated with mourning and bereavement and usually worn at funerals and memorial services.
In some traditional societies, for example in Greece and Italy, some widows wear black for the rest of their lives.
In Western society, since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates.
In Europe and North America, black is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, fear, evil, and elegance.
So, perhaps, without meaning to, my school’s request for its staff wearing formal black attire today is somehow fitting.
Above: Black Square, Kazimir Malevich, 1915
A good man was crucified today, later justifying centuries of bloodshed done in his name.
A couple were condemned to death for being the wrong people at the wrong time in America.
A nation remembers a war it could have, should have, would have won had the decisiveness and determination by American leadership exhibited in previous conflicts had manifested itself in this quagmire of needless death and destruction.
Another nation commemorates two thieves assassinated by police – who were on even more shaky moral ground than those they gunned down – in an act of violence now celebrated by annual displays of violence.
It is truly a day of mourning when viewed through the prism of history.
It is a day of secrets, for the truth behind the poorly documented life of Christ – we do not know precisely when he was born nor when he died, so his birthday is assigned to a Roman pagan holiday so as to replace it and his death date is dependent on lunar calculations similar to other faiths (like Islam’s annual determination of the dates of fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca) – or the reasoning behind the Rosenbergs’ execution, the sad sorrowful acts done in the Vietnam War, and the lack of logic in commemorating the death of thieves by police by doing violence that demands police presence.
It is almost a feat of magic that humanity still remains when one considers the folly of our history.
It is a day of force where compulsions lead to consequences.
It is a day of violence as viewed above.
It is a day of fear where the mysteries of existence and the inevitability of death cause humanity to seek divine solutions of salvation and solace, a day when leaders use the spectre of suspicion to alienate us from one another, a day when force is always used instead of attempting conversation and comprehension and compromise.
It is a day of evil elevated to full volume while truth spoken to power is softly heard like whispers in the wind.
It is a day of elegant illusion where faith seeks to explain itself, where those of differing religious or political beliefs must be demonized to elevate ourselves, where we pin metal on mens’ chests rewarding them for the mettle and courage that those who forced them to battle lack, where we cloak flags over coffins pretending an honour or dignity delayed or denied them whilst they lived.
It is a day of formal black attire as worn at the funerals of the human spirit.
Above: “Baby’s in Black“, The Beatles, 1964
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead‘.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- “Funeral Blues“, W.H. Auden
- “The Ballad of John and Yoko“, John Lennon
- History Day by Day, Peter Furtado (Thames & Hudson)