The Real War -- Ken Kesey

[Tace]

This is one of Kesey's last writings, penned just after 9-11 (includes spelling errors):

snip

Because we are talking not just about war, this time, but about the war above
the war: the Real War. This war has already been been waged, and it's not
between the US and the Taliban, or between the Moslems and the Isralies or
any of the familiar forces, but between the ancient gutwrenching bonebreaking
fleshslashing way things have always been and the timerous and fragile way
things might begin to be. Could begin to be. Must begin to be, if our lives
and our children's lives are ever, someday, in the upheaving future, to know
honest peace.

True, the warriors on our side of this Real War seem few and flimsey, but we
have a secret advantage: we don't fight our battle out of Hate. Anger, yes,
if we have to, but anger is enough. Hate is the flag the other side battles
beneath. It is the ancient flag of fire and blood and agony, and it waves
over the graves of millions and millions.

Our side's flag is a thin, airlight blue, drifting almost unseen against the
sky. Our military march is a meadowlark's song among the dandolions. And our
Real War rally isn't given any space at the United States Congress. Where can
you hear it? Lots of places, if you listen. Across Dairy Queen counters. In
the careful post office talk. The e-mail is where I've been hearing it, for
days now, and the entries are getting clearer and more numerous. At first
only ten or fifteen. Then fifty or sixty. And this morning more than three
hundred! Here are a few chunks and pieces that I printed out:

more

http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg80180.html

[CountAllVotes]

1. I posted this a long time ago

thanks for reposting this!

Everyone needs to read this!



:dem: :kick:

[Tace]

6. Kesey Really Was Great

This shows how special Kesey really was. He was a lot more than a myth.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Thanks for posting this brilliant stuff

"Our side's flag is a thin, airlight blue, drifting almost unseen against the
sky."
I write today just a stone's throw from Ken Kesey Square in Eugene Oregon. Ken was a writer like no other. When I read him, I hear the words in my heart.
Peace to us all.

[barbtries]

3. nearly brought me to tears

it took me back to those days. 911 happened less than 2 months after my daughter's murder. i felt as if i knew the pain rage grief and hatred too well already, and the events of 911 effected me like hot lead being poured through my veins. and i knew - should i say believed - that war was not the answer. so helpless to change it. now more than seven years later how many premature violent useless unjust deaths?

i really loved this piece, and had not seen it previously. reading it today has really effected me with sadness over the waste and also lifted me to see that there were always people looking at it from my perspective. people who knew how it would NOT end. for warmongers it appears that the point is to make sure that it does not end. peace.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Ah, me, this makes sad reading. So much hope for a better world, and our war profieers so

determined to make a worse one.

[kas125]

5. Thanks for posting this, it's always great to re-read Kesey's writings.