In honor of Memorial Day: The War Prayer

It was a big holiday weekend, so I'm coming to this a bit late, but I thought it worthwhile posting something in honor of Memorial Day. "In 1904, disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short anti-war prose poem called "The War Prayer." His family begged him not to publish it, his friends advised him to bury it, and his publisher rejected it, thinking it too inflammatory for the times. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying famously:

'None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.'

"The War Prayer" was eventually published after World War I, when its message was more in tune with the times."

The Washington Monthly has created a video of the prayer, narrated by Peter Coyote. The English Major in me finds it fascinating because this is a piece of Twain's work that I wasn't familiar with. That, and the fact that it is a powerful comment on today's political climate. So: The War Prayer.

-posted by Paul