Foolish?
My grandfather...
a gentle man with white hair
–
once red, I'm told –
and a mustache fashionable
in his time
but unusual in my own
growing up time...
Before the "Big" war...
known as WW II
did what appeared foolish
to citizens of Seattle.
He would get on a street-car
carrying a sign
designed for picketing
on the water-front.
He was protesting the
sending
of American scrap-iron
to Japan
where he believed it was used
to build weapons.
Those who made profit
and others without vision
or fear for peace
scorned and mocked
and labeled him...
well, you know.
Labels for those who
walk for
peaceableness in the world
rarely change.
I wonder if those who
labeled
him "foolish" had any other
thoughts on the day of
Pearl Harbor?