Tony, I've enjoyed your writing many times since we connected online, but this....this, is your finest work yet.
My experience of war was sweat, and tedium, and long hours of labor into the night but precious few moments where I was in actual danger. Still, after a lifetime in uniform and now serving those who still wear it, I feel I can see war for what it is: sometimes necessary but always desolation, destruction, and the death of those who usually least deserve it.
It pains me to no end when I see men rattling sabres and sending their young men to grab someone elses' homes - killing over lines on a map. It's heartrending to see men so consumed with greed and hatred that they drop bombs on homes and schools with evil indifference and sometimes even glee about who and how many they kill.
As Sherman said and so many other echoed, war is indeed hell on Earth.
All that is to say that when evil men send others to kill to move lines on a map, or attempt to erase a group of people or ideas from the world, or just seek to enslave and steal, thank God there are men like Major Sullivan Ballou who are willing to stand between the evil and the innocent. I met many in my time in the Air Force, and there are many who still serve.
If it be God's will, may it always be so and may they never be called upon to surrender their lives for an unjust cause.
Thank you for this comment, Mickey. Most days, I harbor at least a passing fear that we're doomed to re-live our bloody past because we've forgotten the reality of it. These days, people qualify themselves as voices on war without really internalizing what it means or why it must be avoided until it is the only remaining option. It's alarming the frequency at which we select it as first arrow out of the quiver.
Ballou gives us a voice from the past capable of helping us make sense of something without having to repeat it. And he does so with a poetry that makes it hit hard.
Tony, I've enjoyed your writing many times since we connected online, but this....this, is your finest work yet.
My experience of war was sweat, and tedium, and long hours of labor into the night but precious few moments where I was in actual danger. Still, after a lifetime in uniform and now serving those who still wear it, I feel I can see war for what it is: sometimes necessary but always desolation, destruction, and the death of those who usually least deserve it.
It pains me to no end when I see men rattling sabres and sending their young men to grab someone elses' homes - killing over lines on a map. It's heartrending to see men so consumed with greed and hatred that they drop bombs on homes and schools with evil indifference and sometimes even glee about who and how many they kill.
As Sherman said and so many other echoed, war is indeed hell on Earth.
All that is to say that when evil men send others to kill to move lines on a map, or attempt to erase a group of people or ideas from the world, or just seek to enslave and steal, thank God there are men like Major Sullivan Ballou who are willing to stand between the evil and the innocent. I met many in my time in the Air Force, and there are many who still serve.
If it be God's will, may it always be so and may they never be called upon to surrender their lives for an unjust cause.
Thank you for this comment, Mickey. Most days, I harbor at least a passing fear that we're doomed to re-live our bloody past because we've forgotten the reality of it. These days, people qualify themselves as voices on war without really internalizing what it means or why it must be avoided until it is the only remaining option. It's alarming the frequency at which we select it as first arrow out of the quiver.
Ballou gives us a voice from the past capable of helping us make sense of something without having to repeat it. And he does so with a poetry that makes it hit hard.
Appreciate you reading and engaging, genuinely.