By Tim Stebbins
“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods”
Thomas Babington Macaulay
I have been trying for some days to get my head around what it is I want to say in this particular essay. I grow weary of endless discussion and pointless speculation about the current condition of this country. A different voice whispers in my ear. A different picture forms in my mind’s eye.
An increasing number of my countrymen, it seems, no longer possess the ability to look to the past with any degree of honesty. Nor are there many left able to look to the future with any degree of hope. We live in Orwell’s eternal present, adrift on a sea of ignorance and apathy, bereft of any mooring in the truth of our history, or any lodestar to guide us into our future.
Continue reading “The Ashes of Our Fathers”
