Who Writes History
12-2-06

Apathy has no place in history.
It’s not the victor who moves people’s hearts.
It’s not the strength of arms that wins;
It’s the strength of a warrior’s heart.
No matter how powerful a man may be,
No matter how ringing his call,
If he fights not for a lifeblood truth,
He fights for nothing at all.
A man who fights without something,
A cause or a person to protect,
Is a man who fights without meaning,
And this history will reflect.
The heroes we admire never sat back
And said, “Other men will fight,”
But stood tall and proud with their swords in hand
And said, “I will fight for what’s right.”
People don’t admire the cowards,
History doesn’t stand for the weak.
If you can’t stand above the feeble masses,
You don’t have the right to lead.
Whom do we admire? Whom do we respect?
Whom would we gladly follow to death?
What do we live for? For what would we die?
What makes us stand up apart from the rest?
Who are the heroes? What makes a man?
What is that strength that fights through misery?
Why are they steadfast from the start to the end?
What makes a man worthy of writing history?

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I had just seen Braveheart. I was introspective. I included a reference to something else as well, and a theme I've used before. The reference is the lines about sitting back and saying someone else will fight; in my story, Anathema Story, a flashback shows the main character leaving for war--his mother tries to dissuade him, saying that there are many other able young men, and he replies, "And where would this country be if they all just stood back and said, 'Someone else will fight'?" The other theme is the question of what we live for, and what we are willing to die for. It's come into other poems in the past.

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