Nob 16, 2012

[Might]

Robert Kennedy:
“Our brave young men are
dying in the swamps of Southeast Asia.

Which of them might have
[killed someone who might have]
written a poem?

Which of them might have [killed
someone who might have
] cured
cancer? Which of them might have

[killed someone who might have] played in
a World Series or given us the gift of
laughter from the stage or

helped build a bridge or
a university? Which of them would have taught
[someone to kill someone who might have taught]

a child to read?
It is our responsibility to let these men live...
It is indecent if they die

[killing]
because of the empty
vanity of their country.”

3 komento:

  1. I find this stunning and would like very much to know what occasioned it at this very moment. Will you say?

    TumugonBurahin
  2. Took me a while to answer you because I found that many things brought this poem out.

    —The air strikes (ongoing) against Gaza strip.

    —Being myself a Southeast Asian.

    —A senator of ours (justly) accused by the daughter of Kennedy of blatant plagiarism.

    —The limits of Kennedy's rhetoric: it won't necessarily stop US incursion on foreign soil. Through geopolitical, cultural, and technological means, one state can dominate another without sending a single "boy" overseas.

    Thank you for asking, Susan. Be early for KWH!

    TumugonBurahin
  3. Dennis: Wow, that's quite a list! No wonder the poem was so stunning. Your last comment, about the limits of Kennedy's rhetoric, is particularly powerful.

    TumugonBurahin