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  • Author's Testimony & Introduction--FAQS
    • Table of Contents
  • 1 His Kingdom to Prepare
  • 2 My Choice Companions
  • 3 Companions
  • 4 Companions II
  • 5 A Mother's MTC Farewell
  • 6 Who Will Dare for Christ
  • 7 To a Chosen Generation
  • 8. I Feel Such a Strangeness
  • 9. Not Me
  • 10. My Brother's Father
  • 11. Not Far Away
  • 12. Questions for Our Leaders
  • 13. Questions From Our Leaders
  • 14. The Visit
  • 15. Show and Tell
  • 16. Within Our Slumber We Will Dream
  • 17. Servants in the Shadows
  • 18. Joya Escojida/Chosen Jewel
  • 19. Las Aguas Del Senor/The Waters of the Lord
  • 20. Come Fasting to the Meeting House
  • 21. As Voices Join in Sacred Sabbath Worship
  • 22. A Child's Baptismal Day
  • 23. In Temple White
  • 24. Temple Hill
  • 25. This Precious Day
  • 26. The Translators
  • 27. I Your Husband Who Have Fallen [First Poem of The Repentance Trilogy.]
  • 28. The Wife's Song
  • 29. Remember Not Past Years
  • 30. A Priesthood Lullaby
  • 31. The Season of Our Need
  • 32. Cherished Daughter, Valiant Servant
  • 33. Daughter, Hear and Heed Your Savior's Voice
  • 34. Bird Mom
  • 35. Eric's Song
  • 36. A Wedding Song of Praise
  • 37. Testimonies to My Daughters
  • 38. Prayer for a Caring Granddaughter
  • 39. Firstborn Son and Firstborn Daughter
  • 40. Father's Day
  • 41 The Hospital
  • 42. The Children of the World
  • 43. For the Healers of the World
  • 44. Simple Heroes of Our Day
  • 45. To This World So Prone to Peril
  • 46. Somewhere
  • 47. Servant of Servants
  • 48. We Wish That You Were Here
  • 49. The Teacher
  • 50. To Protect Marriage and Family
  • 51. Earth's Unborn Children Weeping
  • 52. Prayers for the Peacekeepers
  • 53. That Patriot Dreams Will Come to Pass
  • 54. We Would Do It All Again
  • 55. So Much More
  • 56. Passage and Pilot
  • 57. Because of the Son
  • 58. Growing Up
  • 59. The Olive Leaf
  • 60. Until All Are One With Him
  • 61. Death Has Not Won, But Lost
  • 62. Call to Arms
  • 63. When All Is Done
  • 64. How Rarely Have I Come This Way
  • 65. At a Place So Very Different
  • 66. My Best Years Lie Ahead
  • 67. Sons of Zion, Jesus Calls You
  • 68. Come, Sing Your Song to Me
  • 69. May It Be Always So
  • 70. Until Safe in Heaven's Embrace
  • 71. Seek the Spirit
  • 72. Undertow
  • 73. If I Am Given Time
  • 74. Sons and Daughters, Heirs of Promise
  • 75. Wrestling for a Call
  • 76. When Everything is Ready
  • 77. One Thousand Times
  • 78. Tearful and Fearful I Prayed Through the Evening
  • 79. Tell Us, How Do Servants and Teachers Like You Come Along?
  • 80. Blessings for Beloved Servants
  • 81. Our Gayla's Free at Last
  • 82. I Am a Witness of Your Worth
  • 83. I'll Live With You Again
  • 84. Brother, Friend, and Fellow Servant
  • 85. Grieve Not for Him
  • 86. Press On From Payson's Hill
  • 87. The Righteous Live in Me
  • 88. Homecoming
  • 89. In Honor of My Friends Unseen
  • 90. [An Invitation] We Call to You
  • 91. Fellow Americans, Let Us Talk
  • 92. Brothers and Sisters, Fulfilled Together
  • 93. What We Have Lost in Our Digital Paradise
  • 94. Running Out of Time
  • 95. Ere You Hear the Sound of Battle
  • 96. 21st Century Gadiantons
  • 97 The Setting Apart
  • 98. What Do You Say?
  • 99. To a Woman of Tempered Steel
  • 100. A Correction Soon Begins
  • 101. The Quiet of the Morning
  • 102. Slippery Slope
  • 103. Stormy--We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This
  • 104. Warriors of the Mind and Soul [Poetic Process Discussion]
  • 105. He Wrote Just as He Lived
  • 106. Life Singer
  • 107. Zion's Daughter Leanore
  • 108. Does Your House of Worship Now Seem Lonely
  • 109. Crucify the "Old Man of Sin"
  • 110. We Loved Them Once
  • 111. Winter's Mothers God Holds Most Dear
  • 112. Lord, Please Forgive Us Anew
  • 113. Patriot's Faith Will Triumph Yet
  • 114. Indexing
  • 115. I Am Liberty
  • 116. The Beauty
  • 117. To Aid the Innocents Abused
  • 118. A Noble Bugler Has Returned
  • 119. The Music of the Lord
  • 120. Frog Cat
  • 121. God's Storms
  • 122. The Daughters of the Lord
  • 123. Come Back, Before Our Souls for Error Yearn
  • 124. Don't Tell Me That My Time Has Come
  • 125. From the Dust [Comes The Book of Mormon]
  • 126 To See the Sun Again
  • 127. Mourning America
  • 128. For Baby Adam
  • 129. Despedida Ansiosa/Anxious Farewell
  • 130. Between the Lines
  • 131. Will You Ever Ask the Questions
  • 132. The Days I Spent With You
  • 133. For Nelda
  • 134. The Covenant Path
  • 135. Heartland Dream
  • 136 We Sent Our Very Best
  • 137. Sisters of the Covenant, Daughters of God
  • 138 Sisters Share Their Cheerful Hearts
  • 139 God Looketh On the Heart
  • 140 What of Me?
  • 141 The Return
  • 142 Latter-day Defenders
  • 143. "Come and See, Come and Help, Come and Share"
  • 144. The Best of Father's Seed I've Known
  • 145. [Complete, but pending.]
  • 146. When the Days of Wait Are Over
  • 147. Red Kettles and Silver Bells
  • 148. Victory
  • 149. He Lacks Not Faith
  • 150. "Am I a Friend of Jesus?" [Spring 2020 Semi-Final Examination]
  • 151. Christ is Our Refuge Once Again
  • 152. Until We Kneel at Our Savior's Feet
  • 153. Where You Stand, You Should Still Lift
  • 154. No Day Shall Pass nor Night Shall Fall
  • 155. We Pray for You
  • 156. Bountiful Harvest
  • 157. A Message of Peace and Love
  • 158. Israel, Israel God Shall Save Thee
  • 159. For Those Who Wait
  • 160. Friends Who Intercede
  • 161. Young Women's "Frog Camp"

98:  What Do You Say?
[Can a decision to decline a call for public service be a superior act of service? 11-3-14]

BACKGROUND AND QUERY


Growing up just outside of Chicago I acquired a testimony of the resurrection quite early, for every two years the "dead arose and voted" in great numbers.
For this poem, we must enter our "Wayback Machine" [Google it] and return to early 2012 and that presidential election cycle.  Numerous "front runners" arose and then fell as media sought for dominion and control over the electorate--good men became "offenders for a word" and a fickle public was easily manipulated.  


In this regard, one elderly candidate, a statesman with a fanatical minority following, was rejected by his party's nomination process.  His supporters demanded that he run as an "independent third party candidate".  He was faced with, perhaps, the most momentous decision of his career--accept the majority's will or continue his campaign.  I published the following in various public "Boards", although I am sure that he never saw the piece: 

What Do You Say?

What do you say, when the crowds go away, 
When you’re aged and ailing and worn?
What can you do, when supporters you knew, 
Have deserted and left you forlorn? 

You’ve a senior's sharp chin, and your skin is too thin, 
From a lifetime spent in the fight.
And the battles lost and the battles won, 
Don't yet prove you were wrong or right. 

Feral children may stare at the “old man there”, 
They've been taught those with wrinkles are weak.
It is now youth’s first rule to worship young fools, 
And your wisdom they no longer seek. 

Can you ponder defeat, will you plan a retreat, 
If some claim you are useless and spent? 
When you’re children are grown, will they think on their own, 
If they do, can you bear their dissent? 

These questions may burn, when the tables are turned, 
You’re now hero and champion to few. 
And the dreams you inspired, when you knew youth’s desire, 
Disappeared like a morning’s brief dew. 

If you should doubt your way, then I pray on that day,
You’ll recall how you made the earth shake. 
When your magical words about freedom were heard,
With a passion too few can now make.

Though you’ll yet pass away, please recall “in the day”, 
You compelled the respect of vast crowds. 
And while it may be that some still disagree, 
They’ll concede that Death cannot be proud. 

And when comes the time, in fate’s judgment line, 
You are called on to make your report. 
You can stand tall and strong, and despite human wrongs, 
You’ll be honored in God’s holy court. 


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AFTERWARD AND QUESTION


The candidate refused his acolytes' demands that he continue his campaign. He supported the party's choice while still continuing his active support of our freedoms by speaking with eloquence and fervor about critical public issues.  Those who love our Republic must grieve with him for the terrible loss of liberty seen in this former leader's lifetime.

Repeatedly, the dilemma of whether declining a call for public service may be a superior act of service returns.  A veritable army of "would be Presidential contenders" are earnestly jockeying for position far in advance of the 2016 election cycle.   Is there some point at which, "their time has passed" and they should step aside?  We must pray that those faced with this quandary will receive Heaven's guidance to do what is best for America.   As the myriad "hopefuls" ponder their future, they might do well to study the life of George Washington, of whom the Smithsonian Magazine wrote:  "George Washington: The Reluctant President. It seemed as if everyone rejoiced at the election of our first chief executive except the man himself."