For All We Have and Are

Thursday, December 7, 2006
0730

Every year on December 7th I pause to think of the historical significance of this date, what it represents in the life of our nation, and of all the people who sacrificed so much to win the terrible war that followed. I think of John Hanson, the only Pearl Harbor veteran I have ever known, who was on duty in the tower at Hickham Field that morning and watched the attack, powerless to do anything about it. He spent the next several years on a series of remote island bases in the Pacific, providing signal support to the Army Air Forces. When I knew him he was a quiet man in his 70s who loved to work with his hands, creating useful, beautiful things with wood. I say a quiet "thank you" to him and all the others who woke up on that morning to a changed world, and who did what they had to do to preserve our nation and our freedom.

Yesterday at dinner I watched the news conference held by the Iraq Study Group (the “Baker Commission”) on the occasion of the release of their report on the Iraq War. The mood was somber and the message sobering.

Later in my room I was reading my volume of Kipling and I came across this poem of his from 1914. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to fast forward 90 years to our current war with militant Islam and consider the relevance of his message:

“For All We Have and Are”

For all we have and are,
For all our children’s fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate!
Our world has passed away,
In wantonness o’erthrown.
There is nothing left to-day
But steel and fire and stone!

Though all we knew depart,
The old Commandments stand: -
“In courage keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.”

Once more we hear the word
That sickened earth of old: -
“No law except the sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled.”
Once more it knits mankind,
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A crazed and driven foe.

Comfort, content, delight,
The ages’ slow-bought gain,
They shriveled in a night.
Only ourselves remain
To face the naked days
In silent fortitude,
Through perils and dismays
Renewed and re-renewed.

Though all we made depart,
The old Commandments stand: -
“In patience keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.”

No easy hope or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all –
One life for each to give.
What stands if Freedom fall?
Who dies if England live?

- Rudyard Kipling


Mood: Serious
Music: Carl Stamitz, Cello Concertos