4 JULY 2008
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, -are all with thee!
FDR sent part of the above poem to Sir Winston Churchill during the early stages of WW2.
The most-referenced lines are the first five.
FDR was thinking of the fighting UK as a ship sailing through rough seas. Churchill was, after all, a former First Lord of the Admiralty, and England was historically, the Mistress of the Seas, defended by her ‘wooden walls’.
Now, what on earth does this poem have to do with the 4 July Weekend?
Well, I thought of this poem over the July 4th holiday weekend.
The Mole Hole Folks treated The Study Folks, for the second time, to a viewing of an aerial exhibition by the Navy’s BLUE ANGELS aboard The Mole Hole’s most lovely vessel, Renaway II.
We were in the midst of a grande weekend of celebration: food, fellowship, drinks, a lot of laughter and good conversation.
And one of the highlights of the weekend was the shipboard viewing of the ANGELS, or, as I call them, the SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF FREEDOM.
And after the show, and after the food, fellowship, etc., I thought of the poem.
We saw the ANGELS before we heard them; coming from a long way off…they were faster than sound.
They were ear splitting.
They were majestic.
They were predatory looking.
As my daughter used to say, you would not want to mess with them.
Anyway, after the show and the ride back to harbor and the dining and aftergloing, I thought over what we had seen and I thought of the poem. “Sail on….”
And those five lines stood out, more loudly and forcefully than ever:
...sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
I really only know those five lines.
And I got to thinking once again that the United States really is a Light on Top of the Hill.
The US really is the last, best hope of the world.
There is an enemy at or nearly at the gates [of civilization].
The folks within the walls are not really up to the job of dealing with that enemy.
The hyper power of the United States is really the sine qua non of the freedoms of the West, and, really, I suppose, of lots of folks everywhere else as well.
Power is composed of many ingredients. It is too late to list them all now. I am too tired and my notes are temporarily lost.
But military power is a biggie.
Experienced, that is, bloodied, stat-of-the-art military power is a required component of hyper power.
No country on earth can compare with the power components [they are varied and many] of the United States. Only one nation is capable of even operating with us.
But the Angels are a symbol of American capability. That is a big word for those who understand the breadth of such a term.
Capability.
Think of what an F-14 or F-15 or F-22 represents. Not just the firepower, but the train of culture, science, engineering, guts, wealth and treasure, courage, etc., etc., that each plane…not to mention each ship…represents.
The events which took place during the summer of the late 18th Century continued the process of development which has resulted in the United States of 2008.
Our July 4th commemorations are good times to think upon what our nation has become.
We are not perfect. But we are the last, best hope of mankind on this planet. We have taken up the baton with our parent country, our Mother Country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and we are doing our best to safeguard our freedoms and thereby the freedoms of as much of the world as humanly possible.
The BLUE ANGELS symbolize the capability of the US to confront the barbarians which are loose upon the planet.
For we should be under no illusion: the barbarian today is at least as lethal to civilization as he was in ages past. Possibly more lethal.
Talking with barbarians is fine if it gets us anywhere.
It will not get us anywhere unless during that talking the threatening barbarian is told that unless he ultimately does this or that he will be destroyed.
Destroyed…preemptively.
Contrary to what the libs say, profiling is a necessary police tool. It is also an absolutely necessary tool of diplomacy.
You have to know who are the good guys and the bad guys.
Whew!!!!!!
July 4th. God bless the weekend.
Please forgive the tirade.
I must add that I thank God that the events of our Revolution did not sever our way of life from that of the Mother Country.
We owe our origins to the British.
We are descendants of the British culture.
We do have a special relationship.
Churchill once told his successors never, never part with the Americans.
I would add that we should never, never part from the British.
We at The Study thank the Folks at The Mole Hole for their courtesies and kindnesses and fellowship.
They have once again helped us to experience a truly meaningful Fourth of July.
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, -are all with thee!
FDR sent part of the above poem to Sir Winston Churchill during the early stages of WW2.
The most-referenced lines are the first five.
FDR was thinking of the fighting UK as a ship sailing through rough seas. Churchill was, after all, a former First Lord of the Admiralty, and England was historically, the Mistress of the Seas, defended by her ‘wooden walls’.
Now, what on earth does this poem have to do with the 4 July Weekend?
Well, I thought of this poem over the July 4th holiday weekend.
The Mole Hole Folks treated The Study Folks, for the second time, to a viewing of an aerial exhibition by the Navy’s BLUE ANGELS aboard The Mole Hole’s most lovely vessel, Renaway II.
We were in the midst of a grande weekend of celebration: food, fellowship, drinks, a lot of laughter and good conversation.
And one of the highlights of the weekend was the shipboard viewing of the ANGELS, or, as I call them, the SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF FREEDOM.
And after the show, and after the food, fellowship, etc., I thought of the poem.
We saw the ANGELS before we heard them; coming from a long way off…they were faster than sound.
They were ear splitting.
They were majestic.
They were predatory looking.
As my daughter used to say, you would not want to mess with them.
Anyway, after the show and the ride back to harbor and the dining and aftergloing, I thought over what we had seen and I thought of the poem. “Sail on….”
And those five lines stood out, more loudly and forcefully than ever:
...sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
I really only know those five lines.
And I got to thinking once again that the United States really is a Light on Top of the Hill.
The US really is the last, best hope of the world.
There is an enemy at or nearly at the gates [of civilization].
The folks within the walls are not really up to the job of dealing with that enemy.
The hyper power of the United States is really the sine qua non of the freedoms of the West, and, really, I suppose, of lots of folks everywhere else as well.
Power is composed of many ingredients. It is too late to list them all now. I am too tired and my notes are temporarily lost.
But military power is a biggie.
Experienced, that is, bloodied, stat-of-the-art military power is a required component of hyper power.
No country on earth can compare with the power components [they are varied and many] of the United States. Only one nation is capable of even operating with us.
But the Angels are a symbol of American capability. That is a big word for those who understand the breadth of such a term.
Capability.
Think of what an F-14 or F-15 or F-22 represents. Not just the firepower, but the train of culture, science, engineering, guts, wealth and treasure, courage, etc., etc., that each plane…not to mention each ship…represents.
The events which took place during the summer of the late 18th Century continued the process of development which has resulted in the United States of 2008.
Our July 4th commemorations are good times to think upon what our nation has become.
We are not perfect. But we are the last, best hope of mankind on this planet. We have taken up the baton with our parent country, our Mother Country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and we are doing our best to safeguard our freedoms and thereby the freedoms of as much of the world as humanly possible.
The BLUE ANGELS symbolize the capability of the US to confront the barbarians which are loose upon the planet.
For we should be under no illusion: the barbarian today is at least as lethal to civilization as he was in ages past. Possibly more lethal.
Talking with barbarians is fine if it gets us anywhere.
It will not get us anywhere unless during that talking the threatening barbarian is told that unless he ultimately does this or that he will be destroyed.
Destroyed…preemptively.
Contrary to what the libs say, profiling is a necessary police tool. It is also an absolutely necessary tool of diplomacy.
You have to know who are the good guys and the bad guys.
Whew!!!!!!
July 4th. God bless the weekend.
Please forgive the tirade.
I must add that I thank God that the events of our Revolution did not sever our way of life from that of the Mother Country.
We owe our origins to the British.
We are descendants of the British culture.
We do have a special relationship.
Churchill once told his successors never, never part with the Americans.
I would add that we should never, never part from the British.
We at The Study thank the Folks at The Mole Hole for their courtesies and kindnesses and fellowship.
They have once again helped us to experience a truly meaningful Fourth of July.
1 comment:
Excellent commentary on Liberty Paul! Fun to read. Thanks for everything!
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