With all the "get out now" folks -- like Keith Olbermann, in particular -- ranting and raving for peace, I thought it might be time to bring out something from 89 years ago, by one of my favorite doggerel authors, Rudyard Kipling*, from Russia to the Pacifists:
God rest you, thoughtful gentlemen, and send your sleep is light!
Remains of this dominion no shadow, sound, or sight,
Except the sound of weeping and the sight of burning fire,
And the shadow of a people that is trampled into mire.
Singing:--Break bread for a starving folk
That perish in the field.
Give them their food as they take the yoke . . .
And who shall be next to yield, good sirs,
For such a bribe to yield?
Don't just stop at this, though. The whole poem is worth reading.
*which brings to mind one of my favorite old cartoons, which was featured in a collection my folks have owned, where a man asks a woman "Miss, do you like Kipling?" She responds, "I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kippled!"
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