Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

".. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"*

( these rights are endowed to men by their Creator and are so acknowledged by the United States Declaration of Independence)

Though you may be living your life
Under liberty maintained by vigilance and strife
Happiness, because it seldom takes full root,
Remains ... at best ... always a pursuit

You who have fought in battles,
Think back, if you will.
Did you make a solemn promise,
As yet, you have to fill?

Did you ask your Creator,
Your life, as for a while, to spare ...
That sometime, somewhat later --
It would little matter where --
To do His Will on earth,
Would be all you'd really care?

[When their ways of life (livelihoods and their lives themselves) are threatened or otherwise jeopardized, the hopes and fears of those engaged in the battle of life and living are no less serious or extreme than those involved in military operations]

How much does a conflict cost
In resources and laboring done,
And after the battle has been fought,
Does it justify the staggering sum?

The sum of the casualties of war,
Is more than "blood sweat and tears" [Words made known by Winston Churchill during WW2]
It represents a loss of which
Parents have given their years.

The hope of a better world
Lies not in a shooting war,
But war in which the goals are such,
As most .. are striving for
[in one way or another]

You who have borne the brunt of battle,
And remember its carnage still,
And the order your appointed commanders,
Who passed the words -- to kill.

What would be the judged opinion
If the other side had won?
Would they have held a tribunal
To avenge every war-lost son?

For, in the course of a critical battle,
Each side under the banner of its flag,
Allowed additional legalized murder,
So the operations would not drag.

Because life is so precious,
Because life is so dear,
Many men fought through battles
Despite their inner fear.

Fear which left you ever wary
After body tremblings were accepted or done --
And made you as a cunning animal
Looking out for number one.

You can be forgiven by your Creator,
For you were an an animal then,
Driven to end a hellish battle --
By killing your fellow men.

Those other men you knew you as brothers,
But only as a fighting foe,
Whose existence to you was a danger,
Which from experience to you came to know.

The blame lies not so much with you soldiers,
You peons of the war,
As with high military and civil commanders,
Who also know God's Law.

On both sides, men died in battle
At the hands of their fellow men,
And man of these -- had they lived --
Would not kill in wars again.

Some who have dedicated their lives
To furthering their creator's ways,
Not for just a little while
But for all their living days.

And to you who have survived,
What have you to say?
You too, can perform some service
For those [living and dead] who in your memory stay.

Why the undue use of violence?
Why the undue marking of war?
And to use a slang expression
"What in the hell are we fighting for?"

Yet we need not resort to fighting
For the means to produce and to obtain
The needed food, shelter and clothing,
As fighting is so wasteful and so vain.

To desire more than your fellow man
Is to put it very mildly -- quite unfair,
And try as you might, whatsoever your plan,
Being selfish brings worry and care.

We all have so much in common,
We all have so much we can share,
That each an contribute something,
Which is no more than each can bear.

The is a a storehouse of plenty,
Enough presently abound for all,
Thanks to the resources of nature,
And the modern science at our call.

With our given ability to reason,
With our knowledge of history past,
We can work to make things on earth more pleasing,
As long as mortal life is allowed to last.

That the Creator allows disorder
Concerning His created Man,
And allows us to seemingly flounder,
Is part of his worthwhile Plan.

Try as we might with our free wills,
Try as we might with our enacted laws,
Unless we practise God's Commandments,
What we do will always have flaws.

To get along with your fellow men,
Is something to practise not just now and then,
For every single existing day,
All can work to further the Creator's Way.

Wars, as such are not the better way,
Be they of the present or a former day:
And things today are as they were then,
As not enough love God -- and their fellow men.

Our living needs are very little,
Out desires and wants are often great;
While living through what seems a riddle,
Of selfish love and selfish hate
That's disturbing the world of late.

Why are our living needs so little,
B e we of the Earths smalls or greats?
Can life be more than just a riddle?
Can unselfish love remove what it abates,
Our selfish loves and selfish hates?

The body's needs are very little;
Yet, many are deprived of them, as such,
Because those who control the means,
Sometimes forget they have so much,
Or their accumulated means--even themselves--don't touch.

Others, though they have but little,
Sometimes waste it on needless desires and wants,
Much to the detriment of their minds and bodies,
By their actikons -- be they secretive or in flaunts.

So, whether plentiful or moderate be their means,
Some indifferently neglect or abuse, it seems --
Themselves as as well as those needful others,
Be they strangers or blood relations, such as brothers.

Because individual needs are so little,k
Many are able to share
Something of which they acquire
Or come to earn
With those requiring care.

Our basic needs thus being little
Provide many with a choice
Of whether or not to obey
Their advising inner voice.

This voice tells you to regard all others,
As you, yourself. would want to be,
Were you to be in their place,
And could know of what their senses see.

You would come to know their hunger
Is more than just for food,
And that their longing for a better life
Cannot but influence their present mood.

This mood can be influenced,
By what love, freely given, removes or abates.
Their pent-up or expressed emotions,
Such as jealousies, envies and hates.

Many in the world do wonder:
Do those who are able to share, care?
And, if those who claim to serve a God of Love,
Will they additional burdens, somewhere, bear,
And for such efforts, date, prepare?

Dare to express your compassion,
Your understanding of what man can be,
That awaits the resutls of personal sharing,
By means-uncoerced and free --
In contrast to wasteful legalized charity.

So, though you have much or little,
Or be your talents many or few,
There is something you can work for,
For there is some all can do
That shows God's Promise to be true.

Though you live in an age of reason,
You live in an age of trial,
For you live in an age with problems,
Whole solutions will take a while.

History repeats itself so often
History repeats itself so much,
That man is now more aware
Of this purposeful repetition as such.

Repetition serves a useful purpose
If from its lessons we come to learn,
That through our coöperative efforts
We can achieve much of what we yearn.

For if we do not pull together
And have as a motto, "Gung-Ho" [A Chinese phrase meaning work together]
Things will get worse instead of better,
From History, this we known