On this, the eve of a national election, in a climate of divisiveness and impending change, together with our recent natural disaster affecting so many millions of Americans, now Veterans Day will fall in a few days. This is a cogent reminder for us of sacrifice, loss and sense of duty, as now less than 1% of our nation’s population volunteers to serve, in order to secure freedom for the rest of us. These few words included here—more reflections on what others have said, than cogent arguments—remind us of our responsibility to remember and honor those that have placed their lives on the line. Remember, too, that the line we all need to draw, in the face of such high stakes in a dangerous world, is the one that leads us to the voting booth. It is a privilege earned with the blood and sacrifice of so many and it is profane not to exercise that precious act of patriotism, when so many have given so much. -RF

*Banner: A small section of an installation for the more than 6600 who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan, on the town square in my home town, Branford, CT.  Average age: 22 years.artes fine arts magazine

Once more unto the breach, dear friends

From: Henry V, Act III, Scene I

By William Shakespeare

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man,

As modest stillness and humility;

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage:

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head,

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought,

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument.

Dishonour not your mothers: now attest,

That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture: let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:

Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,

Cry ‘God for Harry! England! and Saint George!’

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“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”

A song written by Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle in 1971 is often reprised during this holiday. The song is based on the informal ‘national anthem’ of Austrailia, Waltzing Matilda. and describes war as futile and gruesome, while criticizing those who seek to glorify it. The song is an account of a young Australian Outback wanderer, who carries his only possessions wrapped in a blanket slung across his back—his only imaginary companion—known as a ‘Matilda.’ ‘Waltzing’ is not a dance here, but the tongue-in-cheek term for any vagabond’s lonely trek down dusty roads with his pack. A bilabong is a deep, freshwater pool where he might stop and rest for the night. He is drafted as a soldier, and shipped off to fight the Turks at the Battle of Gallipoli, during the First World War.

 

_______________________

The Bravest Man I Know

By Amanda Whitney

 

The bravest man I know.

Is a man I’ve never met.

He’s a man who risks his life

To save a friend,

Not only to save a friend,

But to save a nation.

Risking his life

For those he does not know.

Stepping up

Leaving loved ones behind,

So that somewhere,

Someone else won’t have to.

He is a man who follows orders

Even though he knows he might die.

 

The bravest man I know.

Is the man who would rather die,

So one more person could go home

To see his family again.

The man who stares death in the face,

But never blinks.

 

The bravest man I know.

Is the man who risks his life

So one day the world may be a better place for his children.

Or any man who goes against his biggest fear.

DEATH

Just to save someone he loves.

 

The bravest man I know.

Is the man who fights

So another man can have the taste of sweet freedom.

Not fighting only for his own benefit,

But for many others all over the world,

Fighting to make this world a better place.

 

That’s the bravest man I know.