Jean-Leon Gerome Pollice Verso.
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In ancient Rome the citizens could watch the gladiators kill each other
mostly adult males, for free.
The emperor sometimes provided free food for the spectators.
In Ukraine today we can watch Russians and Ukrainians kill each other
mostly adult males, at great expense to us.
There is no free food.
In Gaza today we can watch Israelis kill Palestinians
mostly women and children, at great expense to us.
There is sometimes free food - for the victims
who can be shot when lining up to get it.
There are differences, of course.
The gladiators had a fighting chance - not much of one, but still a chance.
They could die fighting, not sleeping in tents or groveling for food and water
in the rubble of their bombed-out cities where their loved ones still lie buried.
Did they know that in dying they were providing business opportunities for their captors?
Surely they did not have to hear the unkindest cut of all - the emperor proclaiming
to the cheering crowd that it was all in
