Obama, McGovern and War
Of all the commentaries I read and heard after President Obama’s inauguration, the one that spoke to me most powerfully was an open letter to the president by George McGovern in today's Washington Post. In his letter, McGovern calls for a five year moratorium on war unless our nation is in grave danger. McGovern, the old history teacher, argues most persuasively against going to war in Afghanistan noting that both Great Britain and the Soviet Union experienced excruciating losses in Afghanistan and eventually limped home defeated.
“I have believed for some time that military power is no solution to terrorism” he says, and as I look at Iraq and Israel and Afghanistan, I must agree.
McGovern acknowledges that he will be called too idealistic, but suggests that sometimes idealism is the best realism. He concludes, this old politician who has been warring against world hunger for more than a quarter of a century, by suggesting that programs that help feed and educate the children of the world will do twice as much good for nation and the world and at a fraction of the cost.
I was privileged to hear McGovern speak at a Northwestern College chapel service last fall, and it was one of the most memorable events of my year. So I wrote the following poem about it:
When George McGovern Spoke in Chapel at Northwestern College
He stood behind the lectern without a note,
eighty-six years old, tanned, that famous grin
lighting up his face as he made his opening comments.
Then he got down to the serious business of telling us
about world hunger,
about the starving kids he saw when he served in WW II
and the starving kids he still sees today. He talked about ways
to save kids from starvation, about Food Stamps (his creation)
and school lunch programs in America and around the world.
He has always had a heart for young people, this old warrior
against war who once said he was “fed up with old men
dreaming up wars for young men to go die in.”
It was the chapel service at Northwestern College
but he read no scripture, said little about God, except this,
except these five lines, which he sang in a clear tenor voice
with just the hint of an old man’s quaver:
“Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world,
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
So often, less is more.
“I have believed for some time that military power is no solution to terrorism” he says, and as I look at Iraq and Israel and Afghanistan, I must agree.
McGovern acknowledges that he will be called too idealistic, but suggests that sometimes idealism is the best realism. He concludes, this old politician who has been warring against world hunger for more than a quarter of a century, by suggesting that programs that help feed and educate the children of the world will do twice as much good for nation and the world and at a fraction of the cost.
I was privileged to hear McGovern speak at a Northwestern College chapel service last fall, and it was one of the most memorable events of my year. So I wrote the following poem about it:
When George McGovern Spoke in Chapel at Northwestern College
He stood behind the lectern without a note,
eighty-six years old, tanned, that famous grin
lighting up his face as he made his opening comments.
Then he got down to the serious business of telling us
about world hunger,
about the starving kids he saw when he served in WW II
and the starving kids he still sees today. He talked about ways
to save kids from starvation, about Food Stamps (his creation)
and school lunch programs in America and around the world.
He has always had a heart for young people, this old warrior
against war who once said he was “fed up with old men
dreaming up wars for young men to go die in.”
It was the chapel service at Northwestern College
but he read no scripture, said little about God, except this,
except these five lines, which he sang in a clear tenor voice
with just the hint of an old man’s quaver:
“Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world,
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
So often, less is more.
Comments
Post a Comment