I'm pretty sure you're right about that:-) Nonetheless considering point-of-view, whether we agree or disagree with the actions of a person or a country. Trying to understand WHY people (or countries) we consider our enemies do what they do can reveal things that--if nothing else, help us defeat them. What I've learned from writing fiction all these years is that we're all complex, contradictory, vulnerable, and full of longing. We learn patterns of thinking and being that pit us against ourselves in ways that can do terrible damage to others. Good people do bad things, inadvertently. The true motives, the crack in the psyche of bad people can surprise you.
War is terrible for the people who get caught up in it no matter what side they're on. That's what "The War Prayer" says. Even when we must fight to save ourselves, it seems important to remember that.
But, to be fair, let's also publish the videos Hamas took of healthy babies being torn from their parents' arms and put in ovens, then the heat turned on, slowing cooking their innocent bodies while the babies screamed and Hamas laughed and celebrated; the mothers being savagely raped over and over again, then their breasts chopped off, left to bleed to death; the fathers being forced to watch as their babies burned and their wives were ravaged, while these fathers slowly bled to death from arms and legs hacked off; the teenagers at a concert who were bombed or, if they survived, assaulted in the worst manner and, if they survived that, yanked into trucks where the men were brutalized and the women raped then their bleeding bodies paraded through towns; the lucky ones who were decapitated and missed the slow deaths or witnessing these atrocities; the prisoners taken into the Gaza underground where we are learning now that many died horribly. Let's watch the videos from 9/11 of the innocents jumping to their deaths then the "WHAM!" when their bodies hit the hard awnings surrounding the Towers. Let's commit to watch the 10/7 and 9/11 videos every year on their anniversaries so we don't get all sentimental and forget what happens to innocent or Pacific people. I'm sure I have not captured it all but, hopefully, enough to remind you of the alternatives to war to try to stop this before it happens throughout Israel and all Jews are annihilialted from this earth for the simple reason that they offend some radicals. I am a patriot and love this country without being blinded to our growing pains filled with mistakes. But, if someone made the mistake of c,oming into my home with the intent to do what Hamas and Russia have done in Israel and Ukraine and other radicals against other venues throughout history, I would not hesitate to do anything I could possibly do to defend my life, my loved ones, and my home; would not hesitate to kill. So, stop this hand-wringing about the results of what happens when one group decides to terrorize and decimate another group and think about the results of being unable to protect yourselves from such unprovoked but brutal aggression.
Thanks for this, Barb. It has been a few years since I last read Twain’s War Prayer with my American literature students. I suspect that your views on war are precisely mine. I call myself a pacifist at heart though I understand that sometimes war must happen. Whew! This is a powerful piece.
I can only imagine it, of course. But I do think it's important for those of us whose lives have been free of it TRY to imagine, to know what war actually does. The whole glory thing makes me a little crazy.
I shudder at the mere thought of war. I narrowly escaped the bloodshed of Korea and later when my ship sailed into Vietnamese waters. But I knew it was there, waiting to destroy.
I'm pretty sure you're right about that:-) Nonetheless considering point-of-view, whether we agree or disagree with the actions of a person or a country. Trying to understand WHY people (or countries) we consider our enemies do what they do can reveal things that--if nothing else, help us defeat them. What I've learned from writing fiction all these years is that we're all complex, contradictory, vulnerable, and full of longing. We learn patterns of thinking and being that pit us against ourselves in ways that can do terrible damage to others. Good people do bad things, inadvertently. The true motives, the crack in the psyche of bad people can surprise you.
Love you, too.
War is terrible for the people who get caught up in it no matter what side they're on. That's what "The War Prayer" says. Even when we must fight to save ourselves, it seems important to remember that.
I love you, Barb, and I don't believe Hammas and Russia, for example, are reading Twain.
But, to be fair, let's also publish the videos Hamas took of healthy babies being torn from their parents' arms and put in ovens, then the heat turned on, slowing cooking their innocent bodies while the babies screamed and Hamas laughed and celebrated; the mothers being savagely raped over and over again, then their breasts chopped off, left to bleed to death; the fathers being forced to watch as their babies burned and their wives were ravaged, while these fathers slowly bled to death from arms and legs hacked off; the teenagers at a concert who were bombed or, if they survived, assaulted in the worst manner and, if they survived that, yanked into trucks where the men were brutalized and the women raped then their bleeding bodies paraded through towns; the lucky ones who were decapitated and missed the slow deaths or witnessing these atrocities; the prisoners taken into the Gaza underground where we are learning now that many died horribly. Let's watch the videos from 9/11 of the innocents jumping to their deaths then the "WHAM!" when their bodies hit the hard awnings surrounding the Towers. Let's commit to watch the 10/7 and 9/11 videos every year on their anniversaries so we don't get all sentimental and forget what happens to innocent or Pacific people. I'm sure I have not captured it all but, hopefully, enough to remind you of the alternatives to war to try to stop this before it happens throughout Israel and all Jews are annihilialted from this earth for the simple reason that they offend some radicals. I am a patriot and love this country without being blinded to our growing pains filled with mistakes. But, if someone made the mistake of c,oming into my home with the intent to do what Hamas and Russia have done in Israel and Ukraine and other radicals against other venues throughout history, I would not hesitate to do anything I could possibly do to defend my life, my loved ones, and my home; would not hesitate to kill. So, stop this hand-wringing about the results of what happens when one group decides to terrorize and decimate another group and think about the results of being unable to protect yourselves from such unprovoked but brutal aggression.
I always loved introducing it to students. When they get it, POW! The world is never quite the same.
Yep. Our views are the same.
Thanks for this, Barb. It has been a few years since I last read Twain’s War Prayer with my American literature students. I suspect that your views on war are precisely mine. I call myself a pacifist at heart though I understand that sometimes war must happen. Whew! This is a powerful piece.
I can only imagine it, of course. But I do think it's important for those of us whose lives have been free of it TRY to imagine, to know what war actually does. The whole glory thing makes me a little crazy.
I shudder at the mere thought of war. I narrowly escaped the bloodshed of Korea and later when my ship sailed into Vietnamese waters. But I knew it was there, waiting to destroy.
Thank you for this! I couldn’t agree more ❤️
Amen.