War is human nature at it's worst. It is the last refuge of the incompetent (or Congress), it is the destruction of the poor, the elevation of the powerful. It can bring out the best in us only when we are able to transcend the worst. I've loved Clemens since my youth and discovered this work about forty years ago, right after I got back from Vietnam. I wish, fervently that this could be discovered by more people, more often. Perhaps War could be made obsolete, a sad and regrettable product of our more primitive past.....
Then again, perhaps not. After watching what has happened in America over the last ten years, let alone over the last 105 years, I think that we can be held up as a portrait of humanity at it's free-est.... and it's worst, at times. Since 2003 and the invasion of Iraq, the US has slunk into the depths of it's own worst fears: it has become a bully and a tyrant that can only strike that which it cannot understand.
Peace is all that any human wants. Let us try to give that to each other....
Then again, perhaps not. After watching what has happened in America over the last ten years, let alone over the last 105 years, I think that we can be held up as a portrait of humanity at it's free-est.... and it's worst, at times. Since 2003 and the invasion of Iraq, the US has slunk into the depths of it's own worst fears: it has become a bully and a tyrant that can only strike that which it cannot understand.
Peace is all that any human wants. Let us try to give that to each other....