Darkness - After Bush's Speech

March 19, 2003.

War is a funny thing. It is always different from what you thought it would be. There is a fascination about it. It amazes. All that action, all that tumult, all that flash and dash. Dust and fire, boil and bubble; the doggie’s shelter turns to rubble.
“We will win, of course. We have to, don’t we.”
“Don’t we?”
“Why you say it’s like gambling?”
“Roll of the die? You mean dice.”
“Die?”
“There is no way we could lose. We are strong. We are united. We are free. We are right. We have good leaders. They are well prepared. They know what they are doing. The nation wants war. The world needs war. God is with us.”
Oh la lah, lah la laaaah; la-la-lah, oh la la lah. World is falling, falling far, spinning fast and slipping deep.
“I know what we should do! Follow me and we’ll leave orbit. The sun has caused us all our problems. We don’t need it any more - we can make our own fire now. Every thing will be all right. Trust in God and follow me. We’ll go safely through the fire.”
Fire of our fathers, burning bright, our leaders will take us through the night; “ . . . grant us entrance to the land of light, and to the fellowship of all thy saints. . . amen.”
Glory is in the political realm. Inhabited by shadows like John Wayne who only saw war on a movie set. But he saw far more glory than those who fought. He did. He make his livin’ offa glory. He glory man.
People love Glory. You beat the drum, they shout and stomp - That’s what glory’s all about. Wave that flag, man!
“There is another aircraft that just struck the south tower “ That’s glory for somebody. There will have to be a response. There will be lots of glory to go around. Maybe even WE will get some of that glory.
Old men will look sober for the first time in years. They’ll appear to wipe away a tear. They send our boys off to war. They really wiped away another world.
Problems don’t need solving anymore. They’ll just go away. We’ll forget all about them but soon enough, we’ll wish we had them back.
“I thought presidents were not kings. “
“Oh, but weak presidents are like kings - they use emotion”
“How can emotion sway men’s minds?”
“Because we think we have to hate.”
“Why do we think we have to hate?”
“Well, it’s a long story . . . but we really do have to hate - don’t ask so many questions - we don’t have the time!’
I am the coolest, am I not?
I got my own domain name!
“Five . . . four . . . three ...”
“Stop!”
“Stop?”
“We don’t have time to count . . . they has got to be consequenches . . .Hit them NOW!”
“Who? Hit who?”
“Fly on, darkened angels, fly on into the war - ignore the curse of vengeful gods, just fly into the fire.”
“Let’s build a plan, confer with our allies . . .”
“Every nation on the earth must join up on our side; and those that don’t will also die, and burn in the blaze.”
“Weren’t there great principles that our nation was built upon?”
“And that’s why we are going to war!”
“Yes, wasn’t there supposed to be some miracle about democratic discourse.”
“Hush! The time is too short for talk - NOW is the time for Action!”
“Isn’t there something wrong with any nation which permits one man to make a snap decision committing all its people to fall in follow blindly?”
“Not if we are really MAD! MAD! MAD! FOLLOW ME - I AM MAD!”

© John Womack, 2001. All Rights Reserved.