The Viking/Judeo-Christian Conflict - Part 2

Today is Day 50841 of the Maintenance of the Immoral (and Illegal) West Bank Settlements and almost the 140th anniversary of the start of the immoral (and illegal) occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Micah.6:8 “He has told you, O man, Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God

MarbleSwamp June 24, 2107

The Viking/Judeo-Christian Conflict - Part 2

Background (continued)

Not only were the main streets of MarbleSwamp closed to JC’s, there were numerous checkpoints at most of the access roads into Vinland from MarbleSwamp including Lynn Shore Drive, Burpee Road and Legg’s Hill Road . (Naha was easier to control since the only land access to Vinland was over a narrow causeway.) JC’s were often forced to wait hours in their vehicles or standing in a long line if they were crossing the border on foot.

In addition to the checkpoints on the border, other barriers were placed by the Vinland Defense Forces (“VDF”) to protect the settlers from attacks by the JC including one built of tree limbs and rocks halfway down Nason Road near the former Temple Israel.

Vinland required two years of military service in the Vinland Defense Forces (“VDF”) for all its citizens after they graduated high school. The checkpoints and control over movement by JC’s in the occupied territories was to a great extent left to the nearly absolute discretion of 19 year old recent high school graduates serving in the VDF.

Over 120 years ago, the Mary Alley Hospital in the former Marblehead closed, thus ending the 360 year tradition of the birth of native “headers”. Since the rejection of the petition for the grant of air rights over one bed in the maternity ward of Salem Hospital from Salem to the town of Marblehead, with the exception of a few home deliveries, women had to give birth outside the town. When the occupation began in 2067, access to the hospitals in Salem and Boston for giving birth became very risky. On a number of occasions, delays at checkpoints had caused the deaths of mothers and their babies. In early 2080, a small maternity with one physician from the Doctors Without Borders had been opened at the previously abandoned medical offices at the site of the Mary Alley Hospital although complicated and at-risk pregnancies still required transfers into Vinland or the United States.

The situation was the same, of course, for the entire range of physical injuries, illnesses and diseases with many lives being endangered because of the difficulty getting through the checkpoints and the road closures.

For nearly 350 years many residents of the area had made their living off the ocean. Fishing as an industry had declined but the source of income for a number of locals was as lobstermen and fishermen. There had, however, been a number of attacks over the years by JC’s who had entered Vinland by boat. The government of Vinland in 2080 ordered a blockade of the coast off of Naha and MarbleSwamp and even recently had shot at and sunk the dory of two JC’s attempting to fish off Children’s Island.

One of the most difficult issues faced by the JC’s involved both the construction of new housing and the renovation of existing homes. While there was a permit office set up by the government of Vinland for the JC in MarbleSwamp and Naha, no permits had ever been issued in the last 40 years. Due to severe winters and the occasional hurricane, the toll on the JC had been heavy. Unrepaired roofs had caused serious deterioration and damage to homes. Some JC’s, including a few on some less visible streets off Beacon Street, had undertaken, without a permit, the construction of rooms attached to the rear of their homes. A Vinland settler informed the VDF and within 24 hours, a Caterpillar Bulldozer destroyed both the addition and the house, fatally injuring a 87 year old family member who had been left alone while the others were at work.

At the same time permits were routinely approved for construction and extension of homes for Viking settlers so that now there are 1000 living in MarbleSwamp. JC during that 40 year period decreased from 36,000 to 30,000 reflecting both the higher birth rate of JC’s over Vikings but the steady flow of emigration of JC’s from the occupied territories.

Deuteronomy 16:20 – “Justice, justice shall you pursue that you may live and inherit the land which God gave you” and the footnote in the 1980 Hertz Edition “(T)here is international justice, which demands respect for the personality of every national group, and proclaims that no people can of right be robbed of its national life or territory, its language or spiritual heritage.