There was once a soldier in the world,
Proud and brave,
But he was the plaything of the nursery:
Since was a paper soldier !

He wanted to remake the world.,
To make everyone happy,
And he was hanging by a thread.:
Since was he a paper soldier.

He would be happy to go into the fire and into the smoke.,
For you to die twice,
But you were making fun of him:
Since he was a paper soldier .

You didn’t trust him.
With many important secrets,
And why? And therefore,
Since he was a paper soldier.

And he swears by his fate
He didn’t crave a quiet life.
And asked: Give me a Fire, Fire!
Forgetting that he is made of paper.

Into the fire? Well, go on! Are you coming?
And he stepped in bravery one day,
And he burned down there for nothing.:
Since he was a paper soldier.

Bulat Okudzhava.
1959

There was a teacher in the Bronx,

Handsome and brave

And he was a teacher there,

Since he was a “Paper soldier”

The young man’s name was Jonathan Levine, and he was the son of the multimillionaire Levine, one of the chief executives of CNN. An idealist who went to work as a simple teacher in a school by all means “NOT for the elite.”

“He wanted to remake the world.”.. This remaking of the world ended with the fact that two black students of his came on May 30 1997 to his apartment in Manhattan, tortured (stabbed him with a knife), extracted the codes of his credit cards, pulled out several hundred dollars from ATM and, leaving, shot their beloved teacher. “so that he doesn’t suffer more.” One of the murderers and tormentors received 25 years in prison and will be released soon or has already been released after comfortably serving two thirds of his sentence. The other made a “deal” with the investigation, blamed everything on his accomplice and was immediately released.

And Jonathan — “Paper Soldier” — has been rotting in the ground for 19 years.

Once upon a time there was another righteous woman, Diana Fossey, also a “Paper Soldier”, who quit her quiet job as a doctor in America and went to Africa to protect mountain gorillas from sadistic extermination there, which were killed with satanic cruelty by African blacks who were finally freed from the heavy colonial oppression of whites.

This struggle ended in a similar way: Her half-naked body, hacked up with a machete, was found near her hut in the camp she founded in the mountain gorilla reserve. Her own grave was added to the twelve graves of gorillas killed by poachers. The murderers, of course, were not found by the Negro authorities, who were free from the colonialists. I managed to write the book “Gorillas in the fog”. I admit, I bought it and started reading it. I interrupted her and did not touch her again – she too conscientiously describes the devilish cunning and sadistic callousness with which Africans treat animals, both in the “reserve” and outside it. They caught a wildebeest in a trap. But they didn’t even kill it, only chopped off its hind legs with an axe and left the unfortunate animal to die a painful death. Diana, having discovered her, shot her in the head, thereby ending the terrible suffering of a living being.

I couldn’t keep reading! It hurts too much!

And Bulat Okudzhava’s song is very talented and wise.

24 II 2016