Flags on the Bayou

by James Lee Burke

In Louisiana we elect unintelligent and corrupt people to public office in order to keep them busy in distant cities. The worse they are, the farther we send them. Have you visited our national capitol?

people tell you war is grand, and do not reprove them. Let them tell you the jingle of the sword and spurs and the whooshing sounds of a mounted knight’s armor are the music of a medieval balladeer, and do not reprove them. But never let them tell you there is rhyme or reason to war,

lest you join the lunatics who have perpetuated its suffering from the cave to the present.

War