Letter to the Editor

So now we have come this far.
  So far that we are hoping for a US president whom we had feared would be re-elected. But he has promised to end the war against Ukraine and Russia. Will he keep his promise? Will he be prevented from doing so? He has already been grazed. John F. Kennedy had it much worse. Two poems* that I will abbreviate go well with this:

It remains to be seen
Whether we […] weep at the word freedom,
whether we steal away in time
onto a white bed or perish
at the hundredfold flash of lightning,
whether we manage to die with hope,
it remains to be seen, everything remains to be seen.”

Marie Luise Kaschnitz (1901-1974)

The last chapter (1930)
On the twelfth day of the year 2003,
The following radio message was broadcast around the world:
That bomber squadrons of the air police
Will extinguish the entire human race

[…]

Everyone thought he could escape death.
No one escaped death and the world became empty.
The poison was everywhere. It crept on as if on tip toes.
It spread along the desert. And it swam across the see.

[…]

Now mankind finally achieved what it wanted.
Although the method was not exactly humane.
The earth was however finally still and satisfied
And turned, completely calmed,
Its familiar elliptical orbit.

Erich Kästner (1899-1974)

It’s harrowing. Thank you for telling me the truth. I hate lies. What kind of degenerates are they, who have the power over us, to lie us into wars!

Udo Kaufmann, Müllheim (Germany)

* Translation from the German