The Winds of War

The winds of war blow in a dream. I feel them like the chill breath of the banshee screaming down my neck. It comes from behind, where we are not looking. Not straying. Not being vigilant. And then it is upon us. War raises its hideous head upon the realm. And we say; Where did that come from? And why? And how? What did we do to deserve this? We, the innocent?

And then we succumb. It has us. No, it eats us. No, it consumes us. Slurp! And we’re gone. Part of the wind. Poof! Another breath of fear and self-preservation in the hurricane. Well, we all have that in common.

We marvel at its grandeur and vainglory, having been enticed by its spell. We looked into the abyss and were entranced. Now we are preparing to worship the great goddess of war and her consort, Death. In our nightmare we think that every shadow and every reflection in every mirror is an enemy. They are us, though in our dreams we would destroy them.

Would that we would wake up.

Working Papers

Um. Ya. This will work.

Let’s see…

Mitch McConnell can clean toilets at the Watergate hotel.
Nancy Pelosi can open up a lemonade stand in front to congress.
The generals at the Pentagon can stage Stratego marathons. Cosplay and all.
John Bolton could rent out his mustache. Mitch might have a use for it!
Elizabeth Warren can join the road show of Pocahontas: The Politician. (You know, the real Pocahontas actually was.)
George W. Bush can continue to be incompetent and irrelevant. (Not sure if that qualifies as a career, but it certainly did while he was president.)
Sarah Palin. That’s all. I just had to put her in there somewhere.
Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan can put together a comedy routine, famous for their skit, Who’s on First Amendment?

And then there are other things they can do to raise a little scratch…

Reflecting pool? How about, swimming pool.
Scavenger hunt in the crypts beneath congress!
Pokemon Go for Washington. Search the grounds of our readily rentable capital for avatars of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and all your other favorite founding fathers.
And of course, they should be able to cash in on the Hamilton craze somehow. Just get marketing on it.

Christmas Truce

I remember hearing about Civil War soldiers exchanging gifts by tossing them over the front lines. They were that close to each other. I think I was in high school at the time. I know it was one of the politically formative memories of my life. How can they be shooting at each other one minute and then swapping cigars for coffee the next? That took some pondering. And if that person over there can show some humanity to me, isn’t he just like me? Can I be like him? What should be my response? And who exactly wants us to kill each other, anyway? Why? These are the questions that the vultures overhead don’t want us to ask. Just pull the trigger, monkey. 

 

And today you can read stories about southern blacks befriending white supremacists and KKK officers and gradually changing their minds about their own racism. I remember Palestinians and Israelis working together on small, anonymous projects around Jerusalem. Not necessarily big projects, and of course not covered in the media, but successful ones. Worthwhile causes that did good for the community. Christians, Jews, Moslems together. Turning the other cheek seems to be a good long-term strategy. Who’da thunk it?

All this by showing others how human we can be. There’s more humanity in man than animosity. But sometimes it needs to be woken up. Let’s make it a point to wake up in our own small battlegrounds. Would you like some coffee?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-the-spirit-of-christmas-the-christmas-truce-of-1914/5316722