Monday, May 26, 2008

And, Of Course, There's This:



The words are by Mark Twain, a tone-poem, if you will, that he wrote but was not published, at the urging of his family, until after his death.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your humanity and the great good sense of your blog, Sid. I must have read this once, but seeing this video makes the impression indelible.
Mike

rlbates said...

I am a great fan of Mark Twain, but this is the first time I have heard this. Thanks.

Bongi said...

that last written line is so true. no one knows the true horror of war because those that do lie dead on the battlefields of the world.

i often wonder about these people's last moments, especially if the final blow came slowly. if they could talk there would be much less nonsense about the glory of war.

Bruce said...

This is a powerful rendition. Thank you for posting this.

Dr. John Baldwin said...

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." A precise, now ages old piece of wisdom from a gentleman named Plato. Thank you Sid for the two remarkable videos posted for this Memorial Weekend. As we close, remember 150 thousand serving in Iraq/Afghanistan, 18 veteran suicides every single day and tonight, 200,000 veterans truly homeless. The price has been huge. JB

SeaSpray said...

This is powerful. I had never heard/read this. I've heard it said "Be careful what you pray for because you might get it."

I wish to God there was no war anywhere...ever. But that would be a perfect world and as much as I like to say "in my perfect world"..there is no perfect world and there is need to be ever vigilant.

I have only closely known 3 men who were in the heat of battle during a war.

My uncles and my husband. None of them EVER spoke about the glory of war. As a matter of fact none of them spoke/speak about their experiences.

My mother's younger brother was in the marines in the pacific during WWII. He didn't discuss it.

My other uncle was in 4 invasions (D-day in France, 2 in Italy and 1 in Africa.) during WWII. I lived with him for 6 years and he never once discussed it. My mother said neither brother ever discussed their experiences. They did belong to a VFW and I hope they did so then. I am guessing they did.

I have heard it said that the soldiers that are in the thick of war, where all the action, horror and devastation is don't talk and certainly don't brag about it. Some of them come home with post traumatic stress disorder. I wonder if they all do to some degree ...the ones that were in the thick of it?

McCain also does not discuss it.

When My uncle who had been in WWII for the duration, was 80 and visiting us...I got him to talk on video)just a little. Fifty one years later and he cried. 80 years old and it was still so fresh and so painful he cried. One of the last things he did as a soldier was go to a concentration camp.

My uncle was a man who knew what it meant to be fighting in a war. He did not have any romantic notions of glory. It is BECAUSE of the ravages of war that he personally witnessed/experienced that he all the more believed in a strong national defense and that we can't look the other way.

My husband also does not discuss Vietnam. His family has told me that he came back a different person but I didn't know him prior to his going over. He discussed something with a marriage counselor and the counselor later said to me "And that's what he said...imagine what he is not saying!"

War is evil and your video demonstrates that somewhat.

Thank you for sharing it.

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