Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Who Will Win? As with so many who sacrificed during WWII, My father with a weakened heart, afflicted with Scarlet Fever in childhood, Invented, tested, and produced his high altitude breathing equipment To enable our pilots to outmaneuver their Axis counterparts; He suffered the bends and stress at 41,000 feet And died young at 59 years of age. Many more sacrificed their lives much quicker, From exploding bombs and direct bullets. Why did so many sacrifice so much, so intensively? Well, the world finally realized that a world under Hitler Would be a life under a mad dictator. Today, an analogous situation obtains. The Earth's lungs are being polluted and suffocated. Fires, flooding, melting, the disappearing Rainforest and pandemics-- All occurring too fast; unnecessarily. Who is the Hitler now? Who wishes to control everything for Hiser* pleasure? It is Us; and shamefully so, as indeed Pogo Possum** once uttered. The question is: Will we truly unite and muster our efforts, Realizing the terrific, self-destructive, pending danger? . Frank Maurer 10 June 2023 0910 Hours. Dedicated to Maureen and George (*Heesh, Hiser, Herm, Hermself; nonsexist pronouns coined by Prof. L. A. Timm, linguist, 1966 and my late wife.) (**Pogo Possum; Walt Kelly comic strip, political satirist, opossum : 'We have met the enemy and he is us' 1970.)