Lurker: Tsk. Tsk. Not only was acreage but square kilometers were checked again before a statement was put to print in refutation. One must be careful in tossing off facts so disdainfully.

I find dwelling on the sins of those long dead hard to understand in any culture. Must the sins of fathers be borne by their children?

Be very careful discussing a birth of capitalism, referring to your note to Amos in the same breath. This is not the thread to discuss such things, nor is it a thread to get into a fine arts issue, where I will paste you to a wall on your subjective statements.

The subject of this thread is that a father's children, a veteran in his own right, sought to serve their country in their own time. The units with which they were serving were called into harm's way. He shared their youthful poetry with us, with an explanation of why he did so. No more, no less.

To have a daughter in a zone of confict where missiles can reach beyond a front line can only compound his grief and fears.

I am impressed to find a site where so many peaceloving people have gathered with those who have served. I am surprised at the many who admit service to their country, whether happy with their past, or not; or, the unusual number of ground-pounders who sought peace after service. I carried my Hoehner chromatic (the piano didn't fit in the rucksack) as a young man, finding this site so many years later in search of a tune almost forgotten.