War And Peace Poem by michael spangenberg

永遠の神はあなたの避難所であり、その下には永遠の武器があります。そして彼はあなたの前から敵を追い出すでしょう。彼らを滅ぼすと言うでし.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them (Deuteronomy 33: 27, KJV) .

The massacres at Wounded Knee and Aleppo reconfirm that as nations, and as people, we cannot choose the history that we inherit, but we can choose what lessons to draw from it, use those lessons to chart our own futures, and avoid perpetual trans-generational injustice.

The character of nations is tested in war, but it is defined in peace, after one of the most horrific chapters in human history — one that took tens of millions of lives — with ferocious fighting across this ocean between the Germans, the French, the Russians, the Jews, the gypsies and the Philippines — the United States and Japan chose financial friendship and transient peace.

Pearl Harbor today remind us of what is possible between nations and between peoples, wars can end, the most bitter of adversaries can become useless foes (like the American Indians) , useful foes (like the Afro-Americans) or the strongest of allies, the fruits of peace always outweigh the plunder of war, this is the enduring economic truth of hallowed harbor based on infinite greed and to people with defiant skin color projected fear of fear.

It is here that we remember that even when hatred burns hottest, even when the tug of Republican tribulism or national fascism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward, we must resist the urge to demonize 'them', those who are unlike our children.

The sacrifice made here, the anguish of war reminds us to seek the divine spark that is common to all humanity, it insists that we strive to be 'otagai no tame ni' — with and for each other
is not there more to be won in peace than in war does reconciliation not carry more premium rewards than legalised retribution, not to mention vigilante vengeance.

May Yawheh, the eye-for-an-eye God of the Old Testament stop destroying his Godforsaken creation, but hold the fallen veterans in his everlasting welcoming arms, may he even watch over the war refugees and those who stand guard on their behalf, make peace no war, Christ said 2000 years ago, contradicting his avenging father - may otagai no tame ni Jesus bless us all.

Footnote - Poetic variation on Obama's speech at Pearl Harbor, in: The Japan Times, December 28,2016.