The cold, hard grief of Christmas during wartime

[Philosoraptor]

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new born King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th' angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new born King!"

2. Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come,
offspring of a virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th' incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new born King!"

3. Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new born King!"

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As my niece prepares to be shipped off to Iraq, and I thank god it's not my own son going, I am reminded of the awful, bitter irony of those words, 'peace on earth', and I think about when I was a kid watching live t.v. images of Bethlehem with soldiers parading down the streets with machine guns and wondering what happened to all the peace on earth.

As the president and his lovely wife stand for photos in front of the glorious white house Christmas tree, I think of the true, obscene horror behind the photo, and the grief that this man has brought to earth, and while the strains of peace on earth waft through the crisp night air, I can only think of the thousands of tortured bodies lying around Baghdad.

I think of all those poor families who will NOT be celebrating the birth of the prince of peace, of all the sad, sad family gatherings with the absence of loved ones, who SHOULD have been hanging ornaments, but instead are gone forever just so that dick cheney could die the richest fat man in the world.

I can never really ever enjoy Christmas again, not like when I was a kid and actually believed all this stuff. Christmas is now just another awful reminder of how low our nation has sunk under this ape. Christmas is most cruel when one of the beloved in those family pictures is gone forever, and so young, and so vibrant, and those smiles, those smiles we will never see again except in photos.

God damn you forever mr. bush. Forever and ever.

[Philosoraptor]

1. I'll have a blue Christmas without you, I'll be so blue thinking about you.

I'll have a blue Christmas
without you;
I'll be so blue thinking about you.
Decorations of red
on a green Christmas tree
Won't mean a thing if
you're not here with me


I'll have a blue Christmas, that's certain;
And when that blue heartache starts hurting,
You'll be doing all right
with your Christmas of white,
but I'll have a blue, blue Christmas.
By B.Hayes, J.Johnson ©1948

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Bush's condemnation

comes from the development (or rather lack thereof) of his own heart. I don't know if you believe in a Day of Judgement, but in my scenerio, one is confronted with everything one has done in their lives, unvarnished, plain truth, including all the consequences. One sees all those whose lives they have touched--and then the Judgement comes-not from some god hovering on high, but from one's own true Self, which is part of That Which Is All.