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Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 03:52:54 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: "Omar's Well," by Paul Andrew Mitchell
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"Omar's Well"
by
Paul Andrew Mitchell
All Rights Reserved
There is a scene in the movie "Lawrence of Arabia," when
Lawrence meets the Arabian warrior for the first time. Lawrence
and another foreigner are about to drink from the only water well
for miles around. This rare well is surrounded by vast expanses
of scorching desert.
Do you remember the scene? It is an unforgettable one.
The Arabian warrior, dressed in black and mounted on a
camel, approaches from a distant horizon, emerges from a
shimmering mirage, and kills the foreigner from a great distance,
with one shot, to the head.
Lawrence is shocked and frozen with fear, not knowing why he
has been chosen to live, and the other foreigner executed,
summarily.
Well, to the average American, the setting makes little
sense, without knowing the full history of that well. Here is my
somewhat fictional account of that history.
Arabia had once been this lush garden, with an abundance of
crops and fruit trees. Water was abundant too, and the
inhabitants were never at a loss for good food and drink. Wine
was plentiful too, from immense yields of grapes every season,
without fail.
The Arabians were a generous people, who never hesitated to
share every bit of their wealth with all visitors from far away
places. So, word of their generosity spread throughout the rest
of the world, and this, of course, gave ever more visitors a
reason to come as well.
In their immense generosity, the Arabians developed one
unfortunate fault: they learned to forget which of the visitors
had come before, and which had come for the first time. This
prevented the Arabians from knowing how many visitors were
returning to steal their wealth, rather than to accept their
generosity graciously, and return it in kind.
As time moved inexorably forward, essential resources began
to be depleted. The water wells were the first to become scarce.
As the supply of fresh water diminished, there developed great
competition for the dwindling supplies, until frequent violence
broke out among the thirsty visitors.
Since the visitors were unable to distinguish natives from
foreigners, it eventually happened that some of the greedy
visitors began fighting with the natives over the scarce water
wells. Then, one day, a greedy visitor killed a native -- the
young wife of an Arabian prince. This caused a terrible war to
break out.
The war lasted 20 years, because news of it attracted
mercenaries from far away, anxious to test their meddle in armed
combat. Many people died, both natives and foreigners, but
eventually, the natives repelled the foreigners.
The mercenaries were singled out for special punishment:
they could never again drink from the scarce Arabian water wells,
on penalty of death. All others must first request permission to
drink, and that permission was carefully decided.
No one was punished for their ignorance, but all mercenaries
were presumed to know the rules that evolved after their loss in
the war against the Arabians.
Now, Lawrence found himself in the former group, without
really knowing it at the time. The unfortunate foreigner, on the
other hand, was a mercenary who had been caught drinking from
this particular well on many occasions, without first getting
permission.
So, it was the Right of the Arabian warrior to execute the
sentence against this foreigner, with dispatch, because such
conduct was exactly what had reduced this lush garden into a
scorching desert which now supported very little life.
This story is an allegory. The well is a symbol for the
necessities of life. Lawrence is a symbol for all ignorant
people who do not know the law of abundance. The foreigner is a
symbol for all those people who habitually flaunt this law with
seeming impunity. The Arabian warrior is the Most High, who
executes inevitable judgment, in due time.
If you expect a talented counsel and computer professional
to provide you with free assistance, no matter how small, without
first offering to give something of your own, you are really no
different from the foreign mercenary who died at the well.
Put bluntly, if you cannot afford $10 to invest in your own
education, then we cannot afford the time it takes to teach you
how to drink from our well. In other words, we then cannot
afford each other, because it is the freeloaders and mercenaries
who have sucked our nation dry in the first place.
You don't want to be one of them, do you?
The Arabian warrior approaches on the horizon.
# # #
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night
email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU
website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal.
========================================================================
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