Forearmed

"If war should come (said old George Jones)
   To bring the world about our ears,
They're welcome to my poor ole bones,
   For I have done long since with fears;
So, at my passin', I can say,
"I thank the Lord I've seen my day."

An' what a day! The things I've seen
   An' read an' heard in one short life --
You'd almost think a man had been
   Thro' twenty lives of sin an' strife.
For I've seen sanity with truth
And peace pass from the earth since youth.

And, oh, I am a grateful man
   For all I've seen an' all I know:
Of wonders since my life began,
   Of follies that have brought them low,
Of all that greed and hate have done
To wreck a world once well begun.

Grateful for this (said old George Jones) :
   When I, with others, pass along,
The wisdom that the world disowns,
   The knowledge won of right an' wrong
Shall guide us in some nobler Plan.
For why? God wouldn't waste a man!