Here, In Silence, Are Twenty More

watch PBS News Hour almost every day. It is the only mainstream media outlet that pays homage to our fallen soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in a proper manner, with regard for their families and a solemnity that a warrior deserves. But when I heard the phrase, "Here, in silence are twenty more..." I could not help but find shame in being an American, because we are doing wrong in the world... In being a veteran, because I can not stop our wrong doing or the unwarranted deaths of my fellow veterans... In being a Christian, because my political leaders are using God to justify mass numbers of death, unjustified war, and the deaths (and injuries) of our young warriors who believe in justice, fairness, duty, honor and a faith in our nation. That this poem was created on July 4th is striking for me.

Here In Silence
James Downey
Here, in Silence,
Are twenty more…

Their names
And faces
Roll across the screen

I know them not,
But I recognize them
As brothers

A band of brothers
Willing to face death
For cause
And belief
In what is ultimately right
And righteous

But I know these brothers
Have died in vain
Laying down all
For foolish cause
And the folly of powerful
Forces
Forces over which they have no control
Forces over which they had no control
Forces that controlled their fate
But forces that had no control

Unlike my brothers
Who sacrificed their all
These forces make no sacrifice at all
These forces made no sacrifice at all
And these forces should have had control

Isn’t it strange…
We all claim to believe in what is right
And righteous
But cannot find what is right
About
Here, in silence
Are twenty more?

Copyright 2007 – James M. Downey,