May I say this to you? I think we may be watching a prelude to our nation's ultimate fate. Civilization follows the sun. We have scorched our way to the other end of the continent. No matter how much we took, no matter how many living things we killed, there was never enough. The molten ball descending into the Pacific has overtones that make me shudder.
I have no doubt I am standing on the edge of mortality. But for some reason I do not fear it. Perhaps the greatest loss in my life is not what I did but what I did not do. I hear a rumble of thunder in the distance, and I wonder if a great army has been sent to drive me from the Earth. I know better. War is a confession of failure, and its perpetrators are the merchants of death, not because they are killers but because they never had the courage to lead a decent life.
