“War is conducted like a funeral.
When many people are being killed,
They should be mourned in heartfelt
sorrow. That is why a victory must be
observed like a funeral.”
—Lao Tzu

It’s a tempting thing, to
criticize and judge everybody
else’s Tao Te Ching;

their way and truth, the what
they said and what they do.

“They need to de-nuclearize”
from a country with thousands
of nukes.

“Those MS-13 animals,” from
a country whose CIA backed the
murderers of El Salvador’s
Archbishop Oscar Romero.

We, the United States of
America, have a large log in
our eye, blinding us as we
seek to remove your splinter;

again and again we throw
weight around making noise,
as the old world shakes its head.

We “won” wars, which is
impossible, and ever since, have
thought ourselves great.

Wars are a necessary evil at best,
and should never be boasted
about—

Lao Tzu’s got a feel for that,
Jesus of Nazareth six hundred
years later with words from God

to keep us happily, humbly
separated.

Babel being built in every
modern city until the next
mass shooting tragedy, God
still picking targets with the
help of hell’s favorite angel;

“From there the LORD scattered
them over the face of the whole
earth.”

“I’m not good.  Only God is
good.”

“You cannot change the world.
It cannot be done!!”

But still we try, and we try,
which is why the United States
government often pulls splinters
out of the world, while failing
to remove the log from our
own eye.