Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Lance Corporal Edward August Schroeder II died with his boots on. For what?
Rosemary Palmer and David Schroeder voice their feelings
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Parents of Lance Corporal Edward August Schroeder II were interviewed by Chris Matthews on Hardball. As I read the transcript I thought that if I were in their shoes my reaction would have been no different. I understand grieving parents who are finding solace in patriotism but I would have railed against those who conned the nation into this war. None of them ever faced enemy in battle and they don't have their own children in the war zone. Now they brazenly offer platitudes about deaths of soldiers.
Lance Corporal Schroeder died in Iraq on August 3, 2005. He was 23 years old. What a waste; an utterly senseless death for the hubris of a few. The views expressed by Rosemary Palmer and David Schroeder are not representative of other families who have lost their sons or daughters. In fact, as far as going public with their doubts about the war, they are among the minority.
The full transcript can be accessed at : M. Kane Jeeves (Ed Naha)
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Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstruous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)
"While is is true that the guns will effect a little useful weeding, I am furious with chagrin to think that the Minds which were to have excelled the civilization of ten thousand years are being annihilated - and bodies, the product of aeons of Natural Selection, melted down to pay for political statues."
Wilfred Owen died on the Western Front on November 4,1918..... seven days before the end of World War I.
*****
Lance Corporal Schroeder died in Iraq on August 3, 2005. He was 23 years old. What a waste; an utterly senseless death for the hubris of a few. The views expressed by Rosemary Palmer and David Schroeder are not representative of other families who have lost their sons or daughters. In fact, as far as going public with their doubts about the war, they are among the minority.
The full transcript can be accessed at : M. Kane Jeeves (Ed Naha)
Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstruous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)
"While is is true that the guns will effect a little useful weeding, I am furious with chagrin to think that the Minds which were to have excelled the civilization of ten thousand years are being annihilated - and bodies, the product of aeons of Natural Selection, melted down to pay for political statues."
Wilfred Owen died on the Western Front on November 4,1918..... seven days before the end of World War I.
