If it be now, 'tis not to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.

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. 

Flags on the Bayou

James Lee Burke