Dr. Lant passed away April 16, 2023
John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Dr
Another in the series from www.writerssecrets.com
“So this is Christmas” 2015…. Miracle at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note.
Every time he promises victory over ISIS or any of its noxious tentacles, his
credibility erodes further, because we all know the next outrage and the outrage
after that are already in the pipeline; no sign of victory brightening our grim
horizon.
Thus, one bloody deed follows another, while I have arrived at the stage where
I hear next to nothing about how we’re going to win a signal triumph and believe
even less. It’s just blah, blah, blah of the Jerry Seinfeld variety. He got $10 million
per episode, keeping us laughing and distracted from the constant flow of new
lamentations, dismay, and heartbreak.
A Thousand Words
Take a moment and peruse a photo taken at the White House just the other day,
December 4, hitting the world’s breakfast tables the next morning. Groggy though I
was when at 6 a.m.I saw it, I knew the sad importance of this affecting image, just
how telling it was. The President was talking his usual smooth game in which he
beats all… but the photo told a very different story.
Here was the most powerful man on Earth, the leader of the free and the brave.
And he was lost, adrift in the conundrum that is world politics during his
watch, where there are more questions than solutions, more every day and more
perplexing.
We wake up to the news, news we now expect, news that no longer surprises
us, of yet another bloodbath. Whatever the number killed and wounded we
scarcely give the matter a moment’s thought, for what once shocked now
diluted by so much blood and pain gets a shrug, a que sera sera, and the
fastest possible push outside remembrance and the slightest notion we
are in any way responsible .
We know what had happened, would happen again and again to our horror
and distress. We are blase, and hence play terror’s desensitizing game,
a game no one wins.
The President, now an expert in prompt verbal response, will present himself to
the nation and utter soothing words that will sooth no one, convincing words that
will convince no one, and words of solution that will solve absolutely nothing.
On one thing only will we agree, that we are relieved the murderous event has not
taken place closer to our hearth and home. But the President cannot react with such
nonchalance because he’s the inheritor of Harry Truman’s immortal line, “The buck
stops here.” The face he is showing to the world these days shows he understands
that… he just doesn’t know what to do next. That is his tragedy, and ours.
I prophesy.
It is 1:06 a.m, and I am about to exercise a writer’s undoubted right
to prophesy, not merely to explicate what has happened but to predict
what will happen. And please to note the verb tense… what WILL happen,
not can, might, or could. For you see, I am a master of my craft,
necromancy my stock in trade. And so I give you the remarks President Obama
will make after the next outrage, set in cement unless…. Pay close attention for this is
our shared destiny.
Remarks upon the occasion of the next catastrophe.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States!”
My Fellow Earthlings,
We meet this moment on a battlefield without end, in a war without victory,
where warriors resemble the school boys they so often are; unclear of who
we are fighting, where they are located, and what they can do.
These bold and unscrupulous adversaries recognize no boundaries, will stop
at nothing, and regard killing the innocent as nothing more than the cost of doing
business.
We stand for truth, fair play, decency, kindness, and the rule of law… but we
fight a shadowy opponent for whom these verities mean nothing, absolutely
nothing and so we go to war against unprecedented menace, unable to use
these tools on our own behalf, obstructing ourselves, pain and anguish the
certain result of our undoubted decency and high civic standards.
Make no mistake about this. To the extent that we love peace is the extent
we will fight you to achieve and to keep it. We take up arms against you to
secure peace. But we use these arms with zealous purpose and moral
security. Moreover, as President John F. Kennedy said in his 1961 Inaugural
Address, “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
Your way is the way of certain destruction and death. Open your mind and see this truth…
for the alternative is cataclysmic, an apocalypse of your own fashioning which will cloud
your dreams for a thousand years. There is no honor in your course and certain
misery, prolonged, and worst of all unnecessary.”
The miracle we need!
And then, right then…yes, it was a miracle. The speech stopped, and the Oval Office,
used for only the most significant of messages, was packed with good people of good will,
wise people come from afar to advise the President and give him strength. Sir Winston
Churchill, a great warrior in battle, a greater warrior for peace, stated his short, succinct
words on the importance of talk and the company repeated them as a chant. “Jaw jaw is
better than war war”.
Franklin Roosevelt held high a placard featuring these words from the early days of his
depression challenged administration: “The country needs, and, unless I mistake its
temper, the country demands bold, persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to
take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But, above all, try
something.”
Lennon
He looked frail, a whisper of a man. “That’s John Lennon” circulated through the crowd, a
celebrity amidst celebrities. As always while he looked weak, his message was anything
but. He asked to turn off the exterior lights for just a minute, the better to accentuate his
message. However, the Secret Service disagreed and drew their weapons, guns pointed
in every direction.
The inconceivable, massacre in the White House, was about to occur, pandemonium
and indelible disgrace a moment away. And then just a flicker of light, then another
and another after that and for the first time since Pearl Harbor all the lights at the
front of the White House dimmed. That day of incipient war the lights were dimmed
for security. This day Lennon urged they be dimmed for his urgent message of hope
and a brand new day.
It soon became obvious that there were hundreds of children in the dark holding candles,
each a war victim, a war veteran though there wasn’t one over fifteen. Just for a
moment the world stopped and looked at the children and listened to their message,
which soon came to be called The Miracle at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Lennon’s
simple but profound words and images of peace and love.were a tableau of the true
meaning of Christmas, the festival of faith, light, and charity.
“So this is Christmas and what have you done/
Another year over, a new one just begun.”
And so happy Christmas for black and for white/
For the yellow and red ones let’s stop all the fights.”
Two immaculately dressed men stepped up to the President; each handed him a
token, a memento. The military officer was General George C. Marshall, and
he gave a document that simply said “Marshall Plan”. President Truman gave
a document that said “Truman Doctrine” and a “The Buck Stops Here” paper
weight with Truman’s picture and “Give ’em hell!” motto.
The President was ready now. He sat down at his desk. Jotted one or two
notes, but not more. He was ready to move the world and wipe the
sadness and chagrin from his expression, replacing them with something
suitable for a leader of millions ready for their own rendezvous with destiny.
The great and important of all Earth had brought the necessary ingredients
to this revival, Kennedy, a willingness to negotiate. Churchill, permission
to keep on talking so long as there was any chance talking would deliver and
sustain peace.
Roosevelt said begin now, and if you fail, experiment some more, while Marshal
(my distant cousin for the nonce) delivered his unique plan that had saved war-ravaged
Europe after World War II and could become the model for resurrecting the war-ravaged
Middle East. And Harry Truman? He brought grit and “can do”, as American as apple pie
and as necessary if the world is to change and flourish.
The crowd was silent. The world was expectant. The moment had arrived.
“Happy Xmas,” he said. “War is over,” he said. “If you want it”, he said.
And so the White House was again what it must always be at Christmas day
and every day, the greatest symbol of hope for a struggling world.
Envoi
I wish to take a moment to praise a fellow poet, for such moments of encomium
must be grasped whenever possible. They are after all far too few in a world where
poets must struggle with all their heart and soul and vision to achieve even a moment
in the light.
John Lennon was such a poet, and as I recall his extraordinary career,
where he played so many roles, his role as poet stands above the others,
for he gave his planet just the words it needed to carry on at a time when carrying
on seemed the most difficult thing to do.
In 1971 he was focusing on Vietnam as all the sentient world was. What good
could a mere poet, a word slinger render? Just this. That he helped keep the bitter
dialog focused on peace, always mankind’s most elusive, most precious destination.
When the song debued it didn’t do very well. Lennon had left the Beatles years
before, and he went from the most sophisticated marketing machine on Earth
to pokey handlers who didn’t seem to know even the most well-known “names”
need help.
Thus this song with its perennially relevant message tanked, a message the world
needed left on the cutting room floor, to be found again in places like this, kept alive
by the faithful.
Little by little its popularity grew, as more buffeted and storm-tossed people responded
to its appeal. After all we all have an interest in its message, don’t we? This is why you
should pass this simple tune to the ones you truly care about. They deserve your concern
and the melody and lyrics you can find in any search engine, always the best present
for this and every other holiday season.
About the Author
2016 is fast approaching and with it Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s 69th birthday. He is, he likes to
say, in the prime of his prime. Thus does the “scribbling” life he commenced at age
5 continue. Twenty books. Thousands of articles. Untold radio and television programs;
worldwide recognition and enthusiasm, all of which culminated in the publication of
his autobiography, “A Connoisseur’s Journey, being the artful memoirs of a man of wit, discernment, pluck and joy”. It was a book that screamed “classic!”, and he has
delighted in the several awards that followed.
To get your copy go to www.writerssecrets.com. You will also want to join his writing
course and learn from this master communicator just how you can improve everything
you ever write.
www.writerssecrets.com
George J. Quacker Production
Div. Jeffrey Lant Associates, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
End
http://writerssecrets.com/2015/12/19/so-this-is-christmas-2015-miracle-at-1600-pennsylvania-avenue/
Another in the series from www.writerssecrets.com
“So this is Christmas” 2015…. Miracle at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant A Message of Hope
Author’s program note.
Every time he promises victory over ISIS or any of its noxious tentacles, his
credibility erodes further, because we all know the next outrage and the outrage
after that are already in the pipeline; no sign of victory brightening our grim
horizon.
Thus, one bloody deed follows another, while I have arrived at the stage where
I hear next to nothing about how we’re going to win a signal triumph and believe
even less. It’s just blah, blah, blah of the Jerry Seinfeld variety. He got $10 million
per episode, keeping us laughing and distracted from the constant flow of new
lamentations, dismay, and heartbreak.
This is just one of the many articles provided to members of Writers Secrets.
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=======================
It was a great honor to work with Dr. Jeffrey Lant during his tenure as CEO of Worldprofit. This
article was given to Daniel Fischer while Dr. Jeffrey Lant was at Worldprofit.
Yours In Success,
Daniel Fischer Dano Enterprises
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