by S. Poulos
whoever seeks, will find.
"But do not despair; this quest will carry you a long way. Now that things will start to crumble, now that the distrust, the corruption, and the injustice, will hit ceiling high, now that mistrust will reach epidemic proportions, and the economies around the world will explode in to pieces. You will stand in the middle of the ruins, amongst the desperate ones, as a lighthouse stands among the rough seas, with many of the lost and desperate ones turning to you for consolation, for comfort, to soothe their wounds inflicted by their fellow-man after they placed their trust in them.
"But I warn you, before that, in order for you to quench this thirst for the truth, during this noble endeavor, you will come in contact with various questionable individuals, and organizations that will be attractive and very soothing in your ears. There will be gifts wrapped in beautiful glittering parcels that will be irresistible to refuse. I ask you to examine the contents, and not the glittering covers. I ask you to be diligent and alert, and examine the word, the gist, the substance, of what they offer to you, as I demand repeatedly from my listeners.
Only then you will become strong, and mature immensely, only then this belief will become conviction, only then you will be assured of the path that will lie open for your, without the danger of being mistaken as the wide road that lead you to perdition.
"Then many will turn to you for comfort, to ease their pains, but also will turn to those in whom they placed their hopes, to those whose promises were empty husks. But this time it will be not to honor them, or to give tribute and praise, but to dishonor them, to demand answers, and explanations for their inadequateness and their miserable failures. They will be incapable of that. They will not be able to give, for they will be confused themselves.
"But until then, I want you to keep your heads high, and to stay strong, for you will witness many things that will sadden you. You will be dismayed by the behavior of your fellow man. The pain will be relentless and unbearable, but through that, you will mature, and then will be your time. Until then, stay as you are, a part of the silent minority, for the other part is preoccupied with the mundane, with the superficial, and as long as this tsunami of havoc, of chaos, and desperation won't reach them, they will remain only witness of the happenings.
"I want you now to disperse peacefully, and I thank you for this spontaneous acquaintance we had."
Although they expected trouble and most of the crowd never heard or knew anything about the Teacher, apart from some hecklings, generally the speech finished in a rather orderly fashion.
While the Teacher was addressing the crowd, inside the hall was empty, apart from some workers of the television crew who were gathering gear, the chairman, two security guards, and some cleaners.
The chairman went into his office to make a call to his wife and told her soon he would be home, but the moment he put down the phone receiver, he turned to see the vice chairman with two of his buddy-councilors standing in the middle of the room.
After a few seconds of total silence, the vice chairman asked the chairman, "Aren't you invite us to sit down Adam?"
"Obviously your gesture is not the social kind Harold; gentlemen...come to the point please."
"Very well then," answered the vice-chairman, "I will come straight to the point. This is the third time I am coming straight to the point but you either ignore it, or you are not realizing the seriousness of the situation. This time you have to act; you cannot ignore it anymore."
"What are you suggesting then?" asked the chairman, knowing already what the answer would be.
'We demand right now that we issue a recommendation, before the whole thing blows in our faces. We still can save some respect for the council. This time I have the whole council behind me in this."
"Gentlemen, you are of line. Just because we can summon someone, to appear in front of us for a hearing, this is not a court subpoena, and that does not entitles us to issue a recommendation for someone without the utmost care and precautions. Shall I remind you that we have a statute, a charter, and it stipulates some things? One is that in order for the council to issue a recommendation, the hearing first has to be adjourned. Do you want me to bend the rules, or rather break the rules? Sorry, but you are knocking on the wrong door."
"You are not really breaking any rules, for technically, the hearing is over."
"And how is that? I have not declared the meeting over; I adjourned the meeting for tomorrow."
"But...I repeat, technically the hearing is over. Tomorrow is going to be a press conference that is media's concern. Our job is finished, don't you understand that?"
"It may be a press conference, but under our jurisdiction. We, the panel, will start the procedure, and we will close it. Besides, are you not interested to hear what he is going to say? Don't you want the whole picture before you make your judgment?"
"We have already done that."
"I suppose you have a verdict too?"
"Yes, and with this verdict, we try to accommodate you too."
"And what is that?"
"We'll recommend the Secretary of State to issue a persona non grata for this guy; other countries have done it already, so why not us?"
"Only one country and that is a rough one."
"Mark my words, many will follow. We should take the lead in this."
"I don't understand what is that irritates you so much about this guy. What is this agony about this case? In the past, we had cases far worse than this. I have never seen you taking such a zealous stand before."
"I am concerned for the country."
"It is honorable for someone to be concerned for his country, but tell me, what is more honorable? The country, the truth, or the freedom of speech?" The chairman said that in a low voice, as though he was asking this question to himself. A few seconds passed, then he turned again to the vice-chairman and asked him, "So you are concerned an old man may do what?"
The vice chairman, obviously annoyed, answered in an irritated way. "Look mister, this country has enough problems as it is. I don't want a loony old man to form a cult movement, or who knows what... we have enough problems as it is."
"Okay then, name me specific one point to justify your fears, after what you have heard so far."
"I already told you what I have to say."
"What about you?" the chairman asked one of the others. "What specifically don't you like about what this man says?"
"I don't like his overall attitude. I think he is a risk to the world as we know it, and that is sufficient ground for me to take this stand."
"When you say the world as we know it, I presume you mean the status quo, the establishment; is that so?"
"I mean, our way of life."
"And what about you?" The chairman turned to the other one. "What is that you don't like of what this man says?"
"He enters into the fields of every profession. He talks as though as he has to answer to nobody, and that is a dangerous proposition. If we let him to get away with this, that will be a bad precedent, and I don't want to be a part of it."
"But is this not what we try to guard here? Is this not our purpose? Why are we here? What is the purpose of this council? Is it not to safeguard freedom of speech, to tolerate the difference? Are we supposed to guard only what is agreeable to us? And why are we driving flashy cars, living in nice houses, in good suburbs, and having dinners in trendy restaurants, for what? Don't we get pay to safeguard all this? Have they put the wolves to guard the sheep?"
Absolute silence reigned for few seconds, and then the chairman turned to the vice- chairman again. "You said to issue a recommendation, to accommodate me; what do you mean by that? And what would be the verdict? Without taking me in to consideration, can you tell me?"
When the chairman realized, he would not get any more answers, he said in a voice so low that barely anybody from the others heard it, "Well...let's sleep on it, and may God help us in this tomorrow."
Meanwhile, another two international television n
etworks, one from Europe, and one from the same country where the hearing was taking place, were joint broadcasting live some segments of the speech that the Teacher was delivering to the crowd.
By this time, there was hardly any country in the world that did not broadcast, either live segments of the hearing or the speech, or in video form in the news section. But what intrigued most of the viewers was the photos of these two elderly man laughing merrily, which were condemned by the commentators of media around the world as something unethical, even sinister, suggesting that this intimate moment was equivalent, of seeing a judge and the accused laughing together at the time of the court hearing, inside the court house.
Titles on television panels and newspapers headings next day included: THE ACCUSER AND THE ACCUSED, THE ODD COUPLE, THE MERRY COUPLE, and more.
This shot instantly was immortalized round the world. The media had a field day. Commentators and guests in television and radio stations were analyzing and commenting about this strange behavior of this odd duo. Panels with 'experts'; quickly jumped in the wagon providing their expertise to hungry audiences. Psychiatrists and psychoanalysts were in demand, offering their opinions to clarify the situation in a psychoanalytic way. The social media were bombarded with all kind of activities, with inconceivable accusations, and paranoid obsessions; bloggers for and against the Teacher were in full swing. With unthinkable characterizations and
