REQUIEM MASS
"....You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town..."
"Tania...come back here." shouted Phyllis as she pushed Beverly and Christina in the carriage in the Springfield Mall.
"Mommy... Mommy, look!...Santa Claus."
"Not now Tania... Please not now. "Christina started to cry, and she squirmed in her seat.
"Oh, Please mommy... Please..." Pleaded Tania, as she jumped up and down with the excitement of a four year old.
Christina and Beverly were oblivious to Christmas, the first since Chris died.
"OK, come on...get in line, "Phyllis said as she waited patiently and took out a bottle to feed Christina.
She was sad, she remembered Chris, now knew why he felt the way he did. Everybody danced with glee, kids, ran up and down the Mall, parents laughed and sang, with smiles and hugs, America had reasons to be thankful.
"...Here comes Santa Claus...Here comes Santa Claus...Right down Santa Claus lane..."
"We're pickin' up a lot of flak....Watch out!...Jackson's hit!...Ready... OK, let her rip!"
Little Dong Van Duc watched in all the excitement. He didn't understand the commotion, the noisey sirens, the sounds of anti aircraft fire or the his anxious mother, yelling at him. He watched in awl at the silver bullets of death falling gently, from high in the sky. Suddenly, someone grabbed him and the next thing the whole area was smothered in flying debris, smoke and fire. All around them , more bombs fell, tons and tons, silver bullets of death, obeying the laws of gravity, falling to the ground destroying God's creations.
"...Here comes Santa Claus... Hear come Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus' lane..."
"Mommy...look at what Santa gave me, "squealed Tania as she proudly showed her mom, the candied popcorn ball.
Phyllis cried to herself.
"Debris still hung in the air. The fires raged and smoke billowed up all over... Mothers screamed...and wailed, children cried,...Dazed men walked through the rubble...building once strong and protective, now collapsed and destroyed. A mother tore her fingernails out clawing at the bricks and debris, attempting to free the buried, which now only showed the exposed leg of little Dong Van Duc.
"....Silent night! Holly night! All is calm, all is bright..."
"Mommy why are you crying...," Tania asked, "was Beverly bad?"
Phyllis reached over from behind the wheel of her car, and hugged Tania," I love you."
"...Round yon Virgin mother and child! Holly infant so tender and mild, sleeping in heavenly peace..."
"...A mother wails as she wander aimlessly through the rubble carrying her bloodied dead limp, motionless child in her arms. His eyes half open stare nowhere.
"....United States officials today announced that President Nixon has resumed the bombing over North Vietnam. Preliminary reports are that massive B-52 and F-111's bombing raids for the first time of the war attacked Hanoi and Haiphong, and the populated corridor between the two cities..."
"... Jingle bells., Jingle bells Jingle all the way...Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh...."
"Good job men, We got some great hits...let's head'er home..."the radio cracked with conversations high in the skies..."Sandy...'open that package from home yet?...hell, he doesn't have to open it...it's the same each year...Old Spice...you can tell by the wrapping...Cut it out Shorty... 'jealous...just because you don't have a little girl to send you a present...Hey men...they got a great meal back at the base...turkey with all the fixins'"
"Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh. O,er the fields we go, laughing all the way...
Kathy slowly drank her punch... Although she knew that she took the punch from the non-alcohol punch bowl, she knew that someone spiked it...The office party was crowded, and raucous. She fought off the guys who now half drunk, fell all over her and attempted to feel her up. She knew that they waited all year for this opportunity, and now that it's Christmas, it's excusable to do almost anything. But she endured and drank more punch, now a little blurry, she didn't care. The groping hands were less offensive. The grabbed and stolen kisses, now more tolerable, even the pinches on the rear.
"...Frosty the Snowman was a jolly happy soul, with a corn cob pipe and a button nose... and two eyes made out of coal...."
OCTOBER 21, NORTH VIETNAM APPROVES PEACE PLAN...
PEACE IS AT HAND, HENRY KISSENGER... OCT 26.
NIXON WINS LANDSLIDE ELECTION, GETS 60.8%
THIEU BALKS AT PEACE TALKS...
NIXON ADD 69 MORE DEMANDS TO PEACE TALKS
PEACE TALKS BREAK DOWN...LE DUC THO RETURNS TO HANOI, DEC 13
NIXON DEMANDS HANOI BARGAINS, DEC. 14 GIVES HANOI 72 HOURS
HANOI-HAIPHONG BOMBED,DEC. 18
"...It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold... Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heavens all gracious King..."
"Men, tomorrow, the targets will be..." the pilots sit in the conference room, the lights dimmed, and the Commander is pointing out targets for tomorrows bombing raid.
Darkness descended upon the cities, all that is heard is the wails of mothers, mourning the dead...
"Merry Christmas, Kathy," A co-worker grabbed her, she spilled her drink all over her dress and she screeched, "oh, no..."
Before she could protest, he mouthed her with his sloppy drunken kiss.. then he felt and squeezed her breast.Kathy attempted to shove him off, only to be attacked by someone else.
"...Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa,la,la,la,la,...la,la,la,la,..."
"....I don't want any more of this crap about the fact that we couldn't hit this target or that one...This is your chance to use military power to win this war, and if you don't, I'll hold you responsible..."Richard Nixon to Admiral Thomas Moorer...
"...we will not be blackmailed into an agreement. We will not be stampeded into an agreement, and if I may say so, we will not be charmed into an agreement until its conditions are right..." Henry Kissenger.
"...I can't believe that a fourth-rate power like North Vietnam doesn't have a breaking point..." Henry Kissinger.
"...On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: four calling birds,three French hens, tow turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree..."
For days tons and tons of bombs rained down.They fell without conscious or feelings....bodies shattered and ripped apart... whole families were killed.... mothers wailed... babies cried in misery... buildings destroyed for no cause...
"....Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the new born King! Peace on earth, and mercy child mild, God and sinners reconciled..."
"No, no no..."the spinster chorale master, banged her baton on the music stand," Robby...OK, Robby...for this song, I want you to just move your lips...OK?"
Phyllis sat in he back of the dimly lit church. Kathy sat with her. Tania waited impatiently for her turn to play the angel. Her wings were made out of white cloth and clothes hangers, and they were always got in each others ways. And the boys with rag tagged beards,played the shepards, a doll for baby Jesus, and the littler kids, played sheep, and goats, most of the kids were too sleepy to pay attention.
"...Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies...."
OPERATION LINE BACKER TWO CONTINUES...
BOMBS HALT CHRISTMAS DAY
BOMBS RESUME, DEC 26
Sirens wailed all day, as bombers made sterile runs. Flax smothered the skies...planes precipitated to the ground with tails of smoke...
"Noel! Noel! good news I tell, and eke a wonder story: A Virgin mild hath born a Child, Jesus the King of glory..."
"....Warooming...Rat a tat tat... rat a tat tat..."Little Jackie plays with dad's Christmas toy..."Kaboom...Kaboom..."The toy B-52 flies around the living room.A chaplain gets out of the car and walks towards the barrack apartment on Ellsworth Air force base in Rapid City, South Dakota...
"...What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary's lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepards are keeping?"
....Dr. Nguyen Luan worked feverishly, cutting and tearing and slicing, working against time. Blood squirted all over and blocked his field of vision. He wiped his brow, fresh blood smeared his forehead...the child cries in pains, his mother holds him down...In time, the body is free from the leg which is pinned and crushed under the three ton boulder. Bach Mai Hospital demolished,...eighteen killed... many wounded, some requiring amputations on site...
Back at he base the sterile clean pilots ate heartily.
"...This, this is Christ the King: whom shepard guard and angels sing, ...Haste, haste to bring Him laud, The Babe, the Son of ,Mary..."
...STONE AGE BARBARISM...NEW YORK TIMES...
...SAVAGE AND SENSELESS...WASHINGTON POST...
"...The B-52s are viewed as a terror weapon by many U.S. officials. The crushing raids have been cited as a psychological depressant...Almost l00 B-52s and about 25 F-llls a day are hitting the North...Neither plane has a reputation for pinpoint bombing..." Washington Post...Dec 20.
"...Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King: Let every heart prepare Him room..."
Lenny walks silently toward Richard grave...She is escorted by a nurse in a white uniform. She hold her arm to steady her...
Lenny, silently tossed a bouquet of daisies on the now Winter dead grass covered, leveled grave...
"... Joy to the world! The Saviour reigns; let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy..."
For eleven days the God Kings unleashed their wrath...Rivers of blood flowed...the mighty God Kings had no respite...The skies turned red...l5 B-52s shot down... nine F-llls shot down...62 Americans died...31 captured... l00,000 tons of bombs exploded.
The giant meat grinder grinded on, feeding the bodies of life, humans beings, God's creation.
Slowly they cranked the handle, the wails and screams are muted, as the tangled legs mixed with arms and bodies, sifted down into the horrible dark interior getting closer and closer to the razor sharp grinding cold steel rotating, never stopping gears.
Babies, mixed with moms and dads, old men and women...and boys and girls, Vietnamese...Americans... Cambodians... Laotians...fed by the proud immoral politicians in three piece suits, fed by government bureaucrats educated at the Grotons, Yales and Harvards, fed by the greedy labor leaders, and righteous priests, who preached about the Prince of peace, yet dined with the devil, fed by the glory boys of ignorance, the media hypes, content to distort, lie and deceive the American people...fed by the military who seek promotions and victories,..and fed by the common American...to selfish to recognize basic morality...willing to ask his government to kill and murder, but not willing to accept that same fate themselves or to their loved ones.
Wails and screams reached terror, the closer the feeders of shame turned the handle of death... Finally, the crunch, and grinding, first the fingers, ripped and mulled and crushed to pulp, then the hands, the bodies cries in even more pain and suffering. Then the arms, the legs, the bodies, and finally the skulls crush like eggshells as the mighty gears of the God Kings churn on and on...minute after minute...hour after hours...days after days...years after years...
Bodies grinded ups, food for the corporate whores feasting on the bloody blend of feelings, hope, love and pain...with blood dripping down their chins, and neck and smattering their white shirts. They feasted, picking out the their teeth with ribs, spitting out vertebras and spitting out femurs, tibias, and skull bones from the blood soaked mush...
JANUARY 27, 1973... Peace treaty signed.... No change from the treaty agreed to last October.
Winning isn't everything,...Winning is the only thing.
Vince Lombardi