September Song
September has always been a portentous month, signaling an end
to the blazing hot days of summer and the dying of the old year.
Hitler and the Nazis chose September 1st, 1939, to invade Poland,
triggering World War 2, which eventually involved 132 countries.
Often forgotten is that Japan invaded or attacked dozens of countries
in the 30s even before hitting Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Auden reminded us of the complexities of war and peace in his poem
“September 1, 1939,” when he wrote, “Those to whom evil is done
do evil in return.” Imposition of massive reparations crushed the
German economy and led to financial collapse and hyperinflation
that pushed Germany into dictatorship and war when Hitler and the
National Socialists were voted into power, resulting in disaster.
As a curious and motivated student, I always looked forward to
returning to school in September after a summer of sports, books,
hiking and climbing and fishing in the mountains, and vacation.
I climbed the Matterhorn in Switzerland on September 1, 1979,
fulfilling a childhood dream from when I saw the one at Disneyland.
I was reminded of four German climbers who died on its treacherous
North face the week before, and of 85 million lives lost in the war.
Mom was born in September, a sister, and friends also, and I followed
my parents into the teaching profession when students went back to
school in the seventh month. Oh, yes. September means the seventh
month, so why is it now the 9th month? The Romans added months
named for emperors thought to be gods and the Calendar adjusted.
Despite heat and humidity and hurricane conditions recently I still
think of September as signaling the approach of autumn and winter
and the end of the old year as plants lose their leaves and seem to die,
animals hibernate or migrate to warmer climes, the sun god appears
to be dying, seasons pass, yet April come she will.
I found it easier to learn foreign languages when I listened to songs
and memorized lyrics, often singing along with the music
I love “The Threepenny Opera,” composed by Kurt Weill, one of the
20th century’s greatest, with hits like “Mac the Knife.” My favorite
is “September Song” recorded by his wife, Lotte Lenya, who fled
Germany with him for America because he was Jewish.
“But the days grow short when you reach September,
And these few precious days I’ll spend with you.”
September 11, 2001
September, I remember, we can never forget
Study the past and you will learn to see the future
And what kind of future can we predict?
For centuries people came to America for freedom
Freedom to live life on their own terms
To live hard, to work hard, to invent and create
To build and expand and make a great country
But now many are drawn by the lure of free money
And government is printing plenty of it
To buy votes, to buy compliance, to make people sheep
And we see where excessive money printing has led
To making the rich boys who control everything
Even richer, and making the politicians they buy off
Even richer, even as they make the money worth less
Until it is worthless, and yes it has happened before
Many times before as when hyperinflation made
Germany bankrupt to where they voted in Hitler
Hyperinflation made Russia bankrupt
To the point they threw in with Lenin and Stalin
And created the vast enslavement of the Soviet Union.
It happened in China to the point they threw in with Mao
And hundreds of millions were slaughtered
By their own governments in the name of socialism
But what of a religion that says they are the only true one
Discounting ancient religions that came long before
And they claim the right to enslave and slaughter
Those who do not obey, those that do believe it is right
For a man to have four wives who are mere property
And whose prophet had 97 wives and married one aged nine?
September, I remember, they used the inventions of freedom
To attack a free country and kill citizens of 165 countries
Who were living and working and creating here
Who used the airplanes, flight fuel, telephones, and computers
To bring down the skyscraper towers that free people invented
To bring us back to primitive dictatorships of 14 centuries ago.
Please notice that millions of people are coming here
Not just for the free money but for the freedom and opportunity.
Not many are leaving for better opportunities elsewhere
Although some are leaving because they fear collapse and war.
Study the past and you will see the future.
There was a band I once saw that called it “Devolution.”
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