One of my favorite poems is "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. It's a brilliant piece wirtten at a time of conflict and despair. I like the poem because I can read it and know that every generation at some time or another feels like things couldn't get worse. It gives me confort when I'm thinking the same thing.
The first stanza contains the most quoted lines:
The best lack all conviction while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Ain't it the truth? Our leaders have led us into an impossible war with all of the passionate intensity and conviction imaginable. They didn't listen to advisors who said it was a bad idea. There was no plan for management or withdrawl. I am as astonished at this foolishness as I was when Nixon was elected President. How could this happen? We may have been misunderstood by the rest of the world in the past. But now I think they understand all too well. We've become the aggressor without a plan.
The other night Bill Maher suggested we should give Iraq back to Saadam Hussein. He's a bad guy but he had knowledge we didn't. He held his country together by fear. Not an admirable method, but an effective one. Maher was kidding, of course, but he had a point.
I have eleven grandchildren. The oldest is almost twelve. She doesn't deserve to inherit a world at war. She deserves leaders with a little less conviction and a lot more reason. Those eleven beautiful children deserve a promising futrure in a country where they can grow and thrive and give the best to their children and grandchildren.
The answer is not to despair but to pay attention. Get involved. Stir things up a little. Write your representatives. Believe me, all of this goes against my peacemaking nature. I've never carried a sign in protest and I've avoided conflict my entire life but I can't be quiet about theis insantiy any longer.
The last part of my plan is to pray. You don't have to join the 700 Club or procalim your faith to strangers. Just take a few quiet momnents to contemplate q peaceful world and pray for your vision to come to fruition. It can't hurt.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of god."
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My Dear Lady
I'm grateful that your grandchildren are so wonderful and lots of Granddads made it possible for they were the peace makers. My Lord made it possible for these and many other peace makers to carry the swords of battle. David was most assuredly a peace maker but he used the weapon of war. I wish that there would be peace on earth and goodwill between men even though I know it will never be. Christians and nonchristian will never unite . One more that carried the sword.
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