Subject: Strong Stuff

What follows is Mark Twain's "War Prayer."  It has relevance today it
has seldom achieved since its publication.  I believe it's now public domain.
While a bit long, Treehouse acolytes might find it worth the read.  Ya gotta
remember: Twain was probably the first great, modern, mainstream Liberal.
The Conservatives even routinely go to bat for him when some misguided
soul wants to ban Huck Finn over the word "nigger."

Bet they've never read this (and I KNOW Bunnypants hasn't); for this is the
road George II has chosen for us, and more sadly, for the world at large,
and the wingnuts want it with all their hearts and poor, damned souls.
There's not a nickle's worth of difference between 1902 Republican-controlled
America and 2002 Republican-controlled Amerika, and this damned well proves it.
 

"It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in
arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism;
the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the
bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down
the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness
of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide
avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and
sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion
as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to
patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they
interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running
down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion
to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our
good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.
 
               It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half
dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a
doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry
warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of
sight and offended no more in that way.
 
               Sunday morning came-next day the battalions would leave
for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their
faces alight with material dreams-visions of a stern advance, the
gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight
of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the
surrender!-then home from the war, bronzed heros, welcomed, adored,
submerged in golden seas of glory!
 
               With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy,
and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to
send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag or, failing,
die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter
from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was
followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse
the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out
that tremendous invocation --"God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest,
Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"
 
               Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like
of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The
burden of its supplication was that an ever--merciful and benignant
Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers and aid,
comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield
them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in
the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their
flag and country imperishable honor and glory -
 
               An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless
step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body
clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair
descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face
unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him
and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended
to the preacher's side and stood there, waiting.
 
               With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence,
continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words,
uttered in fervent appeal,"Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord
our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
 
               The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside
-- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some
moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes in which
burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
 
               "I come from the Throne-bearing a message from Almighty God!"
The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he
gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd
and grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger,  shall have
explained to you its import-that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto
many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it
is aware of-except he pause and think.
 
               "God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he
paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two- one uttered,
the other not. Both have reached the ear of His Who hearth all
supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind.
If you beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you
invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the
blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are
possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not
need rain and can be injured by it.
 
               "You have heard your servant's prayer-the uttered part of it.
I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it-that part
which the pastor, and also you in your hearts, fervently prayed silently.
And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so!  You heard
these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!'  That is sufficient.
The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words.

               Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for
victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow
victory-must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening
spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He
commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
 
               "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts,
go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go
forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with
our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of
their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the
shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their
humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of
their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out
roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of
their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun
flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn
with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it
-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives,
protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way
with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and
Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and
seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.  Amen.
 
               (After a pause)
 
               "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The
messenger of the Most High waits."
 
               It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic,
because there was no sense in what he said."
 
               -Written by Twain during the American military's brutal and senseless
crackdown on the Philippines (1899-1902), which resulted in the deaths of
4,600 Americans and 272,000 Filipinos.  How many will it be in 2002?