ONE TIN SOLDIER
By
-Daniel-
©
Though we be apart,
we are but a heartbeat away.
I have come to share a Truth
upon this blessed day.
'Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend,
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end,
There won't be any trumpets blowing,
Come the Judgment Day,
On the bloody morning after,
One tin soldier rides away.'
This millennium was christened in a crusade of blood,
and the elementals of conflict and hatred have endured
until the bitter end of the Piscean Age.
Even as we stand in the twilight, between the old and the new,
the ignorance of man rages on and in its blind fury does the
ego endeavor to savagely devour the innocent Lamb of Love.
The atrocities committed by man, the misery and untold
sorrow that have followed in its wake, germinate from
his inability to see his own reflection in the eyes of
another and is further nurtured by the illusion that he is
somehow different and better than those he chooses to abuse.
Listen to the words of a young boy that lived through the
terrible tragedy that is war:
"It was almost daylight when I heard a woman's voice crying,
not four yards from me, That woman was wounded! I knew she
had been shot...knew from her crying. I saw the tepee...inside,
underneath...ripped and torn by bullets. Many tepees were riddled
in nearly every foot of canvas. All shot to pieces, women and
children killed. My people were running away, leaving everything
in their tepees. All left my tepee and I lay there hardly knowing.
The soldiers came charging the camp, entering the tepees.
They set fire to the tepees, women and little children still in some
of them."©*
-First Red Feather of the Wing-
-Ha-wow-no Ilp-ilp-
Hear the anguished voice of a husband and feel the sorrow
of a father's helplessness:
"Many of the tepees were in ashes, some of the blackened
poles still standing. I inquired for my wife and little child.
Bad news came about them...
my wife and baby had both been shot.
During the day, when the fight came on again, I did not
leave the tepee. I had to care for my wounded wife and child.
Then came the news that Rainbow, Five Wounds,
Wal-li-tits and Sarpsis Ilppilp were killed,
four of the best fighters of the Nez Perce tribe.
All this touched my feelings, laid me low and down hearted...
...Four days later my little child died.
My wife was shot in the back, just about the waist.
The bullet came out through her breast."©**
-Shot in the Head-
-Ho-sus-pa ow-yein-
Know the fear of a young wife's misery:
"The night darkness came about us.
People are scattered everywhere, hungry, freezing.
Almost naked, they had escaped from the camp
when the soldiers came charging and shooting. Thus we remained
overnight. We must not build a fire. No bedding, cold and chilly,
we stood or sat holding our horses. We cried with misery and
loneliness as we still heard the guns of the battle. All the next
day and night we remained there. No food nor fire, I grew sleepy.
All of us fell asleep. After a while we feel as if a blanket is covering
us. It is snow. Four suns in all we are hiding, starving and cold.
No moccasins, I am bare-footed. I can still feel that hunger, feel
the freezing cold. I never forget that I was five suns without food.
I never forget how I suffered with cold and hunger.
Never."©***
-Carrying another one's burden-
-Pe-nah-we-non-mi-
Did this young boy deserve his freedom less than any of us?
Did this man love his wife and child less than we love our
own wives and children?
Did this young woman need to suffer in fear and agony?
These particular stories belong to the survivors of the 1877
Nez Perce War, but they are not unique.
In truth, this tragic gift of misery belongs to all of us...
...to the African who was kidnapped and forced into
the chains of slavery,
...to the Jew who was branded, abused and marched
off to death,
...to the Japanese-American who fought and gave his
life with honor, for a country that imprisoned his family,
...to the Palestinian who finds himself homeless
in his own land,
...to the people of Kosovo, who now find themselves
to be the victims of senseless carnage.
Within each of us lies the potential to become the monster
of abuse.
Within each of us exists the capacity to embrace the world
with the kindness of Love.
The choice is ours alone to make...
Do we follow the path of Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin,
down to the destruction of all that is holy and good;
or do we listen to the gentle, loving words of our
beloved elder brothers...
Buddha, Krishna, Jesus and Muhammad?
One path separates God from His children,
as child curses child.
The other path gathers together all of God's
children and blesses them each with the gift
of Peace and Love.
Our thoughts and prayers for those unknown shall
become a healing balm for all the world.
Sorrow will quickly disappear if each one feels the pain
held in the tears another's eyes;
and thus the Family of Man will awaken with joy,
declaring Love to be their King.