Writer’s Rant
An Uncivil War
August 8, 1917
Yes, that’s right. The year is 1917, the year my father was born. 108 years ago today. There was a war going on. It was dubbed: “The war to end all wars.” Oh, the irony. Look at all that has transpired since then and where we are today. Besides the many conflicts of the past, today we are at political war that seems to get worse everyday. We are as divided today, if not more, than the civil war of 150 plus years ago, that pitted brother against brother and left no American untouched. If only it were just a war of words, we might be able to sit idly by and let the antagonists fight it out, but unfortunately, once again, it’s brother against brother.
Now don’t try to undermine what I’m saying by calling me sexist or even gender-specific. But if you choose to anyway, you are part of the problem. Just because you may not like how I say something or believe differently from what I say, it doesn’t justify a violent response or even verbal attack against me. Just be civil about it.
Speaking of which, have you ever wondered why they called it the “Civil” War? Here is a brief history lesson for you:
The name’s a bit ironic, of course—there was nothing “civil” in the polite sense about it. The war was brutal, with massive casualties and deep divisions that lingered for generations. But the “civil” part just means it was an internal war, not a war between separate nations.
If you dig into history books, you’ll find the war was called different things depending on where you stood—“War Between the States,” “War of Northern Aggression,” even “War for Southern Independence.” “Civil War” just ended up as the label that stuck.
(source: chatGPT August 2025)
I choose not to fight and in doing so, I resort to humor. Below are a few examples of humor to share, dating back to 1917, the year my father was born. Here’s to you, Dad.
July 18, 1917
“During the last air raid the windows of one house were blown outwards… yet the occupant—…experienced surprise on hearing that the house had been struck by a bomb. She was under the impression that a new bus route had been opened.”
Black humor from the trenches (Sub Rosa, 1917 trench magazine)
• A limerick about trench rations:
“Little Jack Wrench / Sat down in a trench / With a ‘pork and beans’ and some bread, / When an Allemande shell / On the parapet fell / So he got ‘iron rations’ instead.”
Nursery-rhyme parody in Odes to Trifles (1917)
• A cheeky verse:
“Fritzie-Witzie sat on a bomb, / Fritzie-Witzie went up pom-pom! / All Bill’s Herr Doktors and medicine men / Couldn’t put Fritzie together again
Another nod in Odes to Trifles—this one mocking heroics
• “There was a young hero of Aire / Who was hit, but he couldn’t say where, / Till a comrade close by / Said, ‘Just sit down and try,’ / And he did, and he shouted, ‘It’s there!’”
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