Reply #11: Martin Luther King used to quote

[H2O Man]

that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell:
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide
In the strife of truth and falsehood
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause God's new Messiah Offering each gloom the blight
And the choice goes by forever, Twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet 'tis truth alone is strong
Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong.
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadows
Keeping watch above his own.

Perhaps Mel G. misses the symbolism of the event. All mythology, as we know from even a shallow reading of Joseph Cambell, begins with suffering. The messages delivered are beyond words, hence symbols are used. Many sincere people confuse the symbol with the higher meaning. Likewise, those who say they have watched their friends die alone confuse what has occured in front of their eyes. Your friends were not alone.