this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war
we love and support our troops, just as we love and support the Iraqi people – without exception, or precondition, or judgment
we have no sympathy for the devil
we acknowledge the power to act that is in us
dedicated today in honor and thanksgiving for all who marched
cross-posted at MyLeftWing, BooMan Tribune, and my blog.
images and poem below the fold
An anti-Iraq war protester gestures for peace while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (L) testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 11, 2007.
REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)
Liam Madden poses for a portrait, Friday, Jan. 26, 2007 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Madden, a Marine sergeant who received his discharge Jan. 20, served in Iraq and with Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto founded Appeal for Redress, an organization of 1,200 active-duty personnel and veterans who favor a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. A small number of active military troops will take part in Saturday’s rally in Washington against the Iraq war, the co-founders of the active-duty protest group say.
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Snow is seen on the demonstration site of anti-war protestor Brian Haw in Parliament Square, London, as the Palace of Westminster is seen in the background, after an overnight snow fall, Wednesday Jan. 24, 2007. Haw has held a continuous vigil at the site since June 2, 2001.
(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Ring out, wild bells
from In Memoriam
by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
