( Haisadiam’s first poem for America and Americans: )

The first version of W. H. Haisadiam’s flag poem, along with two

postscripts, was written and typed in late November of 1979—

during the first and most distressed days of the Teheran hostages

crisis:

Prove it, Americans!

The Flag Is Still There, Wavering

THE SCENE:

The United States since the losing of the Vietnam war down through

the Viet refugees on boats, the Cambodian massacres and starvation,

the Soviet invasion of Afgahanistan, to the current hostage crisis at

Teheran.

THE POEM:

O say, does the Star-Spangled Banner yet wave?

Yes, it does, … and it will.

It does—

Only seldom in triumph now;

And it will—

But who knows how?

When our cause it is not just,

In God is not our trust;

And if freemen shall only stand

From sea to shining sea

On Lincoln’s Heaven-rescued land;

O say, can you see,

Before the dawn’s first light,

What so proudly hailed

At the twilight’s last gleaming?

Let’s give proof that

The flag is still there, wavering

Through the night,

That the stripes are broad,

And the stars are bright.

P.S. 1 (General):

Not again, O no, not again—

Let the Stars and Stripes be not burned,

Let free and innocent Americans be not prisoned;

Let the courage and wisdom of the United States

be not shortened,

And our leadership in the free world be not scorned;

Let the spirit of America be not mourned,

And America be not shamed--

Not by ourselves,

Not by others!

Let’s do right!

Correct ourselves, and help others.

P.S. 2 (Particular):

Yes, pray, Americans!

Pray to God,

Or to whatever you believe has

Love far beyond itself

And power over all beings,

For the American hostages in Iran,

And for us all.

Pray that peace be given to all those Americans

Held under an evil and doubly-ignorant Khomeini*

By the violence of so many ignorant Iranians

Against their nation’s integrity,

Against international rules,

Against their reason—after cooled,

Against their religion

And Allah’s will—if unveiled.

Pray that all those Americans will be saved;

Either rescued brilliantly or released painstakingly,

But all alive,

And safe and sound.

Pray that these we have just prayed

Be fulfilled according to God’s will---

For those our clutched brethren are innocent indeed

In this breaking in and kidnapping and armed occupying

By Iranians;

For our hearts are burned with worries and sorrow

Over those who are the dear sons, husbands, and fathers

Of our next-doors;

For many pseudo-pious Iranian Muslims have sinned

Against Heaven,

And provoked the wrath of Allah That is also our God;**

For God knows all things and all peoples,

And is just.

So let’s pray for those hostages

And act—

Have faith in God and do our best;

With God all things are possible.

Pray also for us all.

If our resistless fellow countrymen should be killed

In Iran by Iranians,

May God lift us

From tormenting grief and blazing fury

To punch out straight and right,

Punishing only those who should be responsible

For the murder,

But not at all

Iran’s men, women and children in general;

For ignorantly and helplessly they are already

Greater sufferers,

And might long remain so,

Of Khomeini’s misleading and tyranny.

May God guide us to walk tall,

If all the American hostages come home

Safe and sound and warm,

Into a new era of America

Starting right now,

In which America the United States

Will not greet in its sinister rivals

By soft-kneeling itself of or under-arming itself;

But will

Pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,

Support any friend, oppose any foe,

In order to assure

The survival and the success

Of liberty;

So that our children and grandchildren will,

Till their last days,

Still see the Star-Spangled Banner

Represent the world’s top superpower

And the free world’s leader,

As the United States of America was

And now barely is.

Finally , as a new start

After all the sorrow and anger,

We should try to ponder:

If the 33,600 American soldiers,

Who should be smiling or snoring grandpas now,

But were long ago killed in Korea’s smokes and snow;

And the 46,400 American youngsters,

Who should be dear husbands and proud fathers today,

But already buried their youth and future

In a heart-breaking Vietnam ten thousand miles away;

Did not make us and have not made us

Learn the lesson that

As there are evil and ruthless persons in personal lives,

There are evil and ruthless regimes in international politics,

(Twenty years later, in 1999: ethnical cleansing in Kosovo.)

How can we, How should we,

Wonder at our misfortune in Iran,

And at another decline

Of the free world’s trust to our administration,

Of we free Americans’ hopes for this generation?

Americans, wake up!

Meet challenges and bear responsibilities

As the top superpower and the leader.

Let the courage and wisdom of the United States

be not shortened,

And our leadership in the free world be not scorned;

Let the spirit of America be not mourned,

And America be not shamed!

Let’s do right!

Correct ourselves, and help others.

* A doubly-ignorant person is one who learns more knowldeges than others,

but forgets more, or learns less, than others the wisdom to use knowledges

properly and appropriately. Iran’s Khomeini did know that America

would be stung by him, but he did not know that America would not bow

to him.

** There is only one God. In this universe, all human beings are one species.

The God for Iranians and Arabians must be the God also for Americans,

Europeans, Africans, Asians, etc., and vice versa. While we general

Americans do not call God by the name of Allah, nor do Iranians or other

Muslims call God by the name of Yahweh or Jehovah, this should not,

and can not, hinder us from apprehending the truth and belief that there

is only one God, who is the God for American Christians as well as for

Iranians and Arabian Muslims, and other peoples, too. In facts He is

the God for, and of, all creation and the world, the universe.

[ The last two sentences in the double star note above, starting from

“While we general Americans …”, were added on August 20, 1993

after Haisadiam got some suggestion from an American missionary,

who is the pastor of a church in Taiwan. Other words above and

below were written in late 1979. ]

In P.S. 2 I quoted a small but spirit-enlightening part of the inaugural

speech of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. JFK’s

original, with another small part, still jingles in my ears—

Eighteen years ago:

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall

pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,

oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.

… In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been

granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.

I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.”

Epilogue:

Out of hearty concern about the situation and feelings of the

West-Berliners in one of their hardest times, and as a tribute to their

courage and will to remain as free people, President John F. Kennedy

of the United States of America told the people of West Berlin during

his state trip to that besieged and blockaded city: “I am a Berliner.”

In a similar sense, and also out of hearty concern, a person who has

been taking a journey of life in the Far East says, by presenting the

poem “The Flag Is Still There, Wavering”, to the American people:

“I am an American.”

And I hope that, next time at a great international meeting such

as the Olympic Games, when hundred millions of peoples around the

world merrily observe national flags flounce and rattle in the air,

occasionally it might make them reflect that we are many kinds but

one species—we are a family in the house of God.***

*** We are many kinds but one species—we are a family in the house of God:

Including the oppressed Palestinians and the bombed and scared Israelis.

- - - A note added on Oct. 14, 2002.