Just wondering if anyone has received this kind of report before. And,
if so, what the problem might be. This repeated mailing to Byron Mayes
seems to be the only case with the message (I received only one copy, and
noone else reported the problem). Is this a LISTSERV problem, a problem
at MVS.UDEL.EDU or at IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU or with SMTP or with MAILER??
Thanks for any enlightenment. --Ralph Papakhian
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hello, Mr. Papakhian:
I have recieved, as of this writing, 108 of the Willie Nelson postings.
Unfortunately, though I know that you aren't responsible for the mishap, yours
is the only name I have at Indiana University.
If you would kindly forward this message to the proper person at the IUBVM
mailer, it would be greatly appreciated.
Oh yes, I haven't recieved any other MLA-L messages since receiving the first
in the Willie Nelson series on 1/1/91 (in case that's relevant).
Thank you,
Byron Mayes
University of Delaware
---
-------------( Forwarded letter follows )-----------------------
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Comments: Resent-From: "A. Ralph Papakhian" <PAPAKHI@IUBVM>
Comments: Originally-From: "Rich Winkel,
UMC Math Department" <[log in to unmask]>
From: "A. Ralph Papakhian" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Willie Nelson antiwar tape
To: "Byron C. Mayes" <[log in to unmask]>
Free Willie Nelson tape. --Ralph Papakhian
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
/** pn.announcements: 200.0 **/
** Topic: Willie Nelson*Tape*War Prayer **
** Written 11:54 am Dec 29, 1990 by peacenet in cdp:pn.announcements **
Subject: Willie Nelson*Tape*War Prayer
It is requested by Willie Nelson that everyone who reads this
piece finds in it a reason to copy and pass it around-- Fax it to
someone you know-- modem it to a local BBS-- or into UseNet or
some other large network. The point being to make this
provocative piece stimulate public discussion the world over.
In addition, Willie has recorded a special audio tape-- it
contains the song Jimmy's Road as well as the reading of this
piece. This tape is not for sale! It's free! If you send a
blank audio tape along with return postage-- you must include the
postage-- we'll copy the tape and send it back to you. Feel free
to distribute the tape and copies of it to your friends. We
encourage sending both items to your local media, if you so
desire.
We also encourage your comments. I can guarantee they will all be
shared in the hopes of creating a forum.
Send all tapes and comments to:
Jimmy's Road c/o
Bob Wishoff
Rt. 1 Briarcliff 13
Spicewood, Texas 78669.
Jimmy's Road, Original music written and performed
by Willie Nelson
The War Prayer
by Samuel L. Clemens
This is Jimmy's road, where Jimmy likes to play,
This is Jimmy's grass, where Jimmy likes to lay around,
This is Jimmy's tree, where Jimmy learned to climb,
Then Jimmy went to war, and something changed his mind around
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was
up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire
of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands were playing,
the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and
spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading
spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags
flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the
wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud
fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them
with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by. Nightly
the packed meetings listened, panting, to patriotic oratory which
stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they
interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the
tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the
pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the
God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in an
outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was
indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits
that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its
righteousness straightaway got such a stern and angry warning
that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of
sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came-- next day the battalions would leave for the
front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their
young faces alight with martial dreams-- visions of the stern
advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing
sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke,
the fierce pursuit, the surrender!-- then home from the war,
bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of
glory!
With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied
by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to
send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or
failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded;
a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer
was said; it was followed by an organ blast that shook the
building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes
and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation--
God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion
and lightning thy sword!
Then came the long prayer. None could remember the like of it for
passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden
of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant
Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and
aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless
them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril,
bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident,
invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant
to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and
glory--
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step
up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long
body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare,
his white hair decending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders,
his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With
all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way;
without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood
there, waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his
presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it
with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, Bless our arms, grant
us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land
and flag!
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside-- which
the startled minister did-- and took his place. During some
moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in
which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said: I
come from the Throne-- bearing a message from Almighty God! The
words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it
he gave no attention. He has heard the prayer of His servant
your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire
after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import--
that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the
prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is
aware of-- except he pause and think.
God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Had he paused and
taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two-- one uttered,
the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him who heareth all
supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-- keep it
in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware!
lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the
same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop
which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse
upon some neighbors crop which may not need rain and can be
injured by it.
You have heard the servant's prayer-- the uttered part of it. I
am commissioned to God to put into words the other part of it--
that part which the pastor-- and also you in your hearts--
fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God
grant that it was so! You heard these words: Grant us the
victory, O Lord our God! That is sufficient. The whole of the
uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations
were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have
prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory-- must
follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit
of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He
commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go
forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them-- in spirit-- we
also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to
smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to
bloody shreds with out shells; help us to cover their smiling
fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to
drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded,
writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a
hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their
unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them
out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the
wastes of their desolate land in rags and hunger and thirst,
sports of the sun, flames of the summer and the icy winds of
winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for
the refuge of the grave, and denied it-- for our sakes who adore
Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their
bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with
tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded
feet! We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him who is the Source
of Love, and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all
that sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.
Amen.
Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak!. The messenger
of the Most High waits.
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because
there was no sense in what he said.
This is Jimmy's road, where Jimmy liked to play,
This is Jimmy's grass, where Jimmy liked to lay around,
This is Jimmy's tree, where Jimmy learned to climb,
Then Jimmy went to war, and something changed his mind around.
This is the Battleground, where Jimmy learned to kill,
Now Jimmy has a trade, and Jimmy knows it well, too well.
This is Jimmy's grave, where Jimmy's body lies,
And when a soldier falls, Jimmy's body dies and dies.
But this is Jimmy's Road, where Jimmy liked to play,
And this is Jimmy's grass, where Jimmy likes to lay around.
The War Prayer is, to anyone's knowledge, the only posthumously
published work of Samuel L. Clemens. He purposely withheld it
from publication in the belief that it would be too painful or
shocking for the world of his day. It is difficult, now, to
understand why The War Prayer , out of all of Samuel L. Clemens
work, should have been withheld, or to know to what degree the
feeling of his period accounted for his decision. His daughter
Jean told him that The War Prayer would be regarded as sacrilege.
But if Clemens took Jean's advice, or any other, it was because
he agreed with it.
The War Prayer , dictated in 1905, was first published in
Harper's Monthly, November 1916.
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