A Rotary Prayer
For
October 10, 2012
War
Is a cruel
And fearsome beast;
You can see how it howls in the Middle East.
It has plagued mankind since the dawn of time,
Well memorialized in song and rhyme.
But worse by far than any other
Is the war of one man against his brother.
Wars
Are waged
For food and land,
For power and seacoast and desert sand,
For the love of a woman, the death of a child,
War stamps its feet, untamed and wild.
But,
Rotarians
Wander the world in Peace,
To cure disease and make conflict cease.
It is not our motto nor our desire
To brandish a weapon,
Much less to fire.
Yet, despite the intent of the best of us,
Wars will be waged by the rest of us.
Not once,
Since our
Nation’s violent birth,
Has Peace existed all over the earth.
Indeed our wonderful Constitution
Cost plenty of blood in a Revolution.
But, the saddest war
Was summoned forth
When the South rose up
Against the North.
An explosion of passion, anger and hate
Divided brothers and fractured states.
So, listen and learn from our guest tonight
As he takes us back to that awful fight.
And pray, though it may be doomed to fail,
That pockets of Peace will at times prevail.
And someday may we fashion a long accord,
Knowing war is a beast that we can’t afford.
Amen.