The Veterans
To-day, across our fathers' graves,
The astonished years reveal
The remnant of that desperate host
Which cleansed our East with steel.
Hail and farewell! We greet you here,With tears that none will scorn--
O Keepers of the House of old,
Or ever we were born!
One service more we dare to ask--Pray for us, heroes, pray,
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the Day!
Rudyard Kipling, 1907
Thank You, all for your willful sacrifice on our behalf.
5 comments:
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Rudyard Kipling
Note the photo... It is the graveyard of brothers each convinced of his virtue. Vicksburg is a quiet, haunting reminder of the misery wrought by fools who peddle arrogant stupidity as truth.
And then pretend to give a damn.
I lived in Vicksburg for two years. Ironically, Warren County where it sits voted not to secede before the unCivil War and then got hit as hard as a town can get hit with a seige and surrender. They didn't officially celebrate the Fourth of July again until 1965.
One can wonder if a similar monument or park will someday be dedicated as a reminder of the misery wrought by fools who peddle arrogant stupidity as truth as is happening in our country even now.
I do give a damn. I don't understand why you retreat into the false representation of being called stoopid when you have a duty to look at the painful truth that you can't stand to look at.
Twelve good men is all it takes but Lot allegedly couldn't find even one.
Let me make this simple Anon, so even you might understand the point. If ‘We’ are wrong, the mistake can and will be corrected by process and the ballot box. The cost may be significant in terms of dollars and souls, but no more so than other national mistakes (and by far less so)… the war on poverty that enslaved generations in mind and body; urban renewal that gave us HUD trophies like Horner, Bedford-Stiverson, and Cabrini Green; the (first) American Civil War; World War I in its entirety; pointless smaller military excursions like Vietnam, Somalia and Kosovo, to name a mere few. The Nation abides, even if a little worse for wear, as long as the people remain trusting, respectful and predominantly united.
You however - with your quasi-Nazi rhetoric, anti-Semitic sentiments, your zany conspiracy theories about Bush and 9/11, your zealous worship of rhetoric and unverifiable conjecture and your horrendous distrust of your fellow countrymen – if you are wrong, the damage you will have wrought in terms of the needless assault on this Nation’s character; the heedless destruction of its reputation; the seeding of insurmountable distrust among its people and between nations, religions, and political parties; the annihilation of civil discourse; and the overall validation of consummate lunacy within the American psyche… that is simply irreparable.
If you are married, try imagining if you spent 7 years treating your wife the way you’ve treated this Nation and then conceive of what kind of relationship the two of you would have afterward.
Respect goes a long way toward achieving persuasion. The reason I have nothing but disgust for the likes of you is because you are determined to be right no matter what must be destroyed in the process. Frankly I see no respect for anything in that approach. It is simply the worship of arrogant stupidity.
And in the absence of respect, persuasion is impossible.
Get it?!
Sticks and stones will break my bones.....
Now you retreat into name calling including the usual reflexive charges of anti-semitism. Not all Zionists are Jews and not all Jews are Zionists. Anti-Zionism is not the same as the misnomer anti-Semitism.
I'm the one that advocates an investigation, not you. I'm the one that knows Truth fears no trial. I value the truth even if it's painful or destroys preexisting paradigms. You fear the truth and that's why you fear the trial. And you dare label mine arrogant stupidity.
Perhaps you could better describe just what it is of such value that you fear would be destroyed by revelation of truth. What is so great about your life that you wouldn't sacrifice it all to live as a genuinely liberated man even for a second instead of being a lifelong eternal slave?
I agree that "persuasion" is a tough nut to crack. I have reflected on the thick skin of denial valiantly preserved by you and Major Mike. It's frustrating as hell. The preponderance of anomalies and coincidences is simply met with namecalling or misrepresentative self deprecation. It's sort of like dealing with children incapable of releasing there grip on an illusion. No, I will not release my belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy because I perceive the threat that I might lose a greater cash value in gifts if I do. No, I will not question the high crimes and corruption of my government because I fear the loss of certain benefits that come from turning a blind eye to them.
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