Above And Beyond
For Cat
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him riding his horse out of the stall; I hear the clatter on the barn-floor. He is in haste; he has business in Cuba, business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle while he cinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself: I will not give him a leg up.Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his foot on my breast, I will not tell him where the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll.I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends or of my enemies either.
Though he promises me much, I will not map him the route to any man’s door.Am I a spy in the land of the living, that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of the city are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.Edna St. Vincent Millay
Posted by Phoenix
05/09/2005 at 04:10 PM
Bring me men to match my mountains,
Bring me men to match my plains,
And new era in their brains.
Bring me men to match my prairies,
Men to match my inland seas,
Men whose thoughts shall pave a highway
Up to ampler destinies,
Pioneers to cleanse thought’s marshlands,
And to cleanse old error’s fen;
Bring me men to match my mountains--
Bring me men!Bring me men to match my forests,
Strong to fight the storm and beast,
Branching toward the skyey future,
Rooted on the futile past.
Bring me men to match my valleys,
Tolerant of rain and snow,
Men within whose fruitful purpose
Time’s consummate blooms shall grow,
Men to tame the tigerish instincts
Of the lair and cave and den,
Cleanse the dragon slime of nature--
Bring me men!Bring me men to match my rivers,
Continent cleansers, flowing free,
Drawn by eternal madness,
To be mingled with the sea--
Men of oceanic impulse,
Men whose moral currents sweep
Toward the wide, infolding ocean
Of an undiscovered deep--
Men who feel the strong pulsation
Of the central sea, and then
Time their currents by its earth throbs--
Bring me Men.--Sam Walter Foss, “The Coming American”
My 80 year old father (WWII Vet) worries that this generation won’t amount to much. I send him things like this to let him know there are plenty of damn good young people out there, they just arent the ones that the MSM finds worthy of ink. I told him to quit watching TV and reading the newspaper as I have. Keep up the good work.
Posted by DixieKraut
05/09/2005 at 09:01 PM
Well said, Bob, and how true.
Bob,
You say things we don’t hear often enough and need to hear all the time, especially when the whining from the left begins. Too bad you’re not running some TV station or the NYT.
I wish you’d go off on campuses, colleges and high schools, that refuse to allow military recruiters. Oh. That makes me SO mad.
Posted by Phoenix
05/09/2005 at 11:10 PM
Bob,
A few months ago, there was a flap in the news that Harvard was banning military recruiters from campus. They get federal money. It was in the news a few days and then died out. I have no idea what happened.
Cat,
I wish I’d sent Parker into the Marines.
My dad was a Colonel in the Army for 33 years, and it would have made him happy. My brother went in for only four years, and that upset my father.A couple of my students went to West Point, and they came back to school to visit me. What complete gentlemen!! And I wouldn’t have messed with those guys for anything. (I meant that in their internal fortitude.)
Posted by Phoenix
05/10/2005 at 04:57 PM
re: the rationale behind not allowing recruiters on campus. nearly all ivy league schools and particulary the “elite” northeastern liberal arts schools have banned ROTC not only from campus but also have banned recruiters. this link will take to a story today about Columbia doing the same . the stated reason is that the military’s dont ask, dont tell policy discriminates against gays. Many in my family have served in the military and this shit drives me up a wall. Congress has been hesitating on cracking down on schools who do this, meaning no more federal funds. Of course I think the federal Dept of Education violates the constitution anyway, but that’s another story.
Following is the text of a letter I wrote the Albany Times Union regarding my Alma Mater sponsoring anti-ROTC lectures.First published: Friday, March 18, 2005
How apropos your story on the former Marine who opposes the Iraq war would run the same day Dan Rather signed off.
Jimmy Massey made some rather serious charges as reported in your article, none of which appear to have been verified by your reporter, although he did take the time to include a notice about the anti-war rally that day. Do you really wonder why your paper and other elements of the media are charged with bias?“Abu Ghraib, Auschwitz, what’s the difference?” How in the name of heaven can you report a statement like that unchallenged? I would hope you have been deluged with indignant complaints by those who were in or had relatives in Auschwitz.
I have relatives who have been to Iraq and many who are now in active service. They do not report anything like what Massey alleges. My brother, who just died, was a colonel in the Army Reserves whose 37 years of active service included voluntary tours in both Bosnia and the first Gulf war.
Giving press to individuals like Massey without at least checking his story is an insult to those such as him who have and continue to serve their country with honor.
Your article has one positive aspect for me. I am a Siena grad (1969) and was in ROTC there. I quit contributing to the annual fund several years ago due to their sponsorship of similar activities. Like a lot of “Catholic” colleges, they seem to have lost their way and I for one have lost my interest in supporting the institution.
PAUL J. GROSS JR.
CastletonPosted by DixieKraut
05/10/2005 at 08:21 PM
looks like the link didnt make it:
http://www.isi.org/cn/pub/stp.aspx?id=04ce967c-0c8f-4e9a-ac53-1aea22fb4becPosted by DixieKraut
05/10/2005 at 08:23 PM
Some things are not black and white. we are not talking about an “institution here and there”. we are talking about Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia, etc. They are using the discrimination ploy as a smoke screen. at Columbia they put the issue to a student voteA Tale of Two Columbiasand 2/3’s of the students voted to bring it back. Yesterday the University Senate including the President of the college voted 53-10 NOT to bring it back. I try to base my opinions on facts not BS.
Posted by DixieKraut
05/11/2005 at 09:42 AM
