Hate

The Marine stood before us
     in dress uniform...
     when Vietnam was still popular.

He was tell us how it was...
     continually calling the enemy...
     "Gooks" and "Animals."

The enemy is always
     a "Commie"
     or "leftist"
     or "terrorist."

We visualize non-beings
     who need destroying
     by our bravest and best.

However justified a war
     we add to evil when we dismiss
     enemies as non-people.

Maybe we can't bring ourselves
     to doing war
     with human beings like ourselves.

So we turn them to animals
     again degrading life
     by assuming animals as worthy
     of destruction.

"If any say, 'I love God,'
and hates his brother, he is a
liar; for he who does not love
his brother who he has seen,
cannot love God who he has not
seen.  And this commandment we
have from him, that he who loves
God should love his brother also."

(I. John 4:20 - 21)

I was marching again...
    some 30 years after
    learning military drill.

Only this time
    we marched out of step
    and out of uniform.

Our drill field
    was the main street
    of Corvallis, Oregon.

We didn't form rank
    or stay in order
    as we walked.

We were all ages
    too old for war
    too young and in-between.

Women marched
    with little boys
    and old men.

It was a peace march
    parading hopes
    of no more military cemeteries.

We love our country too much
    to want it blasted
    to everlasting waste.