Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Commentary

Cajimat

Our profiles of Hawai‘i and other Pacific island residents who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan ends today. Although this year's toll may seem light, the anonymous poem from the Civil War (below) emphasizes that any death or injury is a tragedy for many people.

This series will conclude tomorrow with a summary of what these stories tell us about these people, the war and ourselves.

Earlier installments in this series can be found here:
'Names and memories dramatize true cost of war', Nov. 14
'In Remembrance: Locals killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2005', Nov. 15
'UH-Hilo grad among last year's local war dead', Nov. 29
or visit the Ka Leo office to read them.

"Only One Man Killed Today"
by A. M. L. (1863)

There are tears and sobs in the little brown house
On the hill-side slope to-day;
Though the sunlight gleams on the outer world
There the clouds drift cold and gray.
"Only one man killed," so the tidings read -
"Our loss was trifling: we triumphed," 'twas said -
And only here in the home on the hill
Did the words breathe aught but of triumph still.

"Only one man killed" - so we read full oft,
And rejoice that the loss on our side was small;
Forgetting meanwhile that some loving heart
Felt all the force of that murderous ball.
"Only one man killed," comes again and again:
One hero more 'mong the martyred slain:
"Only one man killed," carries sorrow for life
To those whose darlings fall in the strife.

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