John Mott grew up in Iowa and early found

His calling was to use his life to foster Christian

Values among the young, that all peoples were bound

To each other. He understood that the early fruition

Of fellowship that emphasized this brotherhood

Would help to eliminate racial divisions and strife.

He began at Cornell with the YMCA, which stood

For the Young Men’s Christian Association. Its life

Became his mission as he travelled internationally

Setting up new associations and preaching an open embrace

Of Christian values, across denominations, literally

Uniting hundreds of thousands of students, their place

As leaders of tomorrow already secured. His call?

“He who would be the greatest among you shall be the servant of all.”

Hull became Secretary of State under President Franklin

D. Roosevelt, and just as soon had the distinction

Of implementing his “good neighbor policy” with representatives

Of 21 American nations.  Three years later, he took the initiative

For the Inter-American Peace Conference, for a joint ideology:

Key aspects included the requirement to create peace within

One’s country, consult often with others and begin

Closer bonds through free trade, solve conflicts by mediation,

And, if acts of war broke out, remain neutral, reign in

Support, prohibit loans and the export of all arms.

These neutrality mandates, strict but vague in terms,

Were designed to reinforce and maintain a free-trade economy.

Hull felt peace was absent between nations waging ‘economic war,’

And worked and lived to assure the United Nations’ core.

Once again, the Red Cross had to participate

In a war full of horror, notorious waste and loss,

Whose level of needs none could anticipate,

Nor tally its length, nor guess and plot its course.

For prisoners of war, they did almost all things –

Reports to kin, returns, conditions, letters, food, lists,

All countries monitored. Thousands worked on this.

As to Hitler’s ‘final solution,’ ‘some knew’ in 1942,

But were overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do.

With neutral Switzerland the key used to legitimize

Their work, they felt they could not afford to ostracize

Any nation, despite the silent foul ‘Howl’

Of extermination, millions mourning while millions of others scowled.

(Fifty years later, with fresh eyes, they apologized.)

Germany’s annexations proceeded from 1938 to ‘41,

Said Churchill, “So now this bloodthirsty gutter-snipe

Must launch his mechanized armies upon new fields

Of slaughter, pillage and devastation” – stopped by no one,

As Germany attacked Russia, which became their ‘Achilles heel.’

“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans,

We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,

We shall defend our island whatever the cost . . . not flag or fail.”

Words were many, but teamwork and the Allies’ D-Day swiped

German military back, their retreat of ‘scorched earth’ ferocity,

Calling their ‘ultimate solution’ and ‘the War of Annihilation’ fair.

Upon our beautiful, celestial sphere – here, there was more to see:

That in the field of weaponry, Man’s greatest experiment,

Turned all matter to dust and disease, poisoned for all time, spent.

With Hitler’s rise, we see a rabble-rouser,

The ‘Nazis’ consolidating – from a grab-bag of discontents,

The Weimar Republic’s own decisions and power

Ineffective, unable to stop rising unemployment.

Nationalism became embraced with such adulation,

Preying upon Germany’s WW I disgrace,

The notion that Jews held too much station,

And a Great Depression, the ‘nail in the coffin.’

Japan was certain that territorial expansion

Would solve their Depression, economic blues, give them clout.

When they were called to account for it by the League of Nations,

They stonewalled the inquiry – and then walked out.

The U.S. responded to Japan’s aggressions abroad by embargoing trade,

So Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack plan was their secret ‘trap laid.’

Total deaths in World War II are estimated

At over 60 million, 3 percent of the world’s population.

Fifty-eight percent were deaths among civilians;

This war’s thirst for blood was almost never sated.

Highest civilian losses were in China, and the USSR,

With military deaths split between aggressors and defenders.

About 6 million Jews were killed, gassed or cremated,

And millions more non-Jews persecuted in all places. Several

Holocausts were occurring simultaneously, unabated.

“Hitler is a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust

For blood and plunder,” said Churchill in 1941,

“The terrible military machine … cannot stand idle lest it rust.”

Norway was occupied from 1940 onward,

The prize, democracy and government hijacked, cloistered.

It’s not as if the Peace Prize was never used to court

Useful and important political or social agendas.

However, to dwell on these might unjustly thwart

The prize’s mission and belittle its significance.

The Nansen International Office for Refugees

Was to be disbanded when the need was met,

But the work with refugees never ceased:

It moved from one disgorging country to the next.

The Office took this prize for their broad work

With Armenians displaced by Turkey, and also Jews

And others from Germany and Russia, a patchwork,

Given passports, visas, supplies and missing person news.

Employment, housing, trade work – help of all kinds was begun,

The Office then became the High Commission for Refugees in London.

Robert Cecil, a barrister and member of Britain’s Parliament,

Worked with the Red Cross during World War I, and went

In 1919 to the Peace Conference , helping set up the League of Nations.

After the war he stayed involved in peace negotiations

And was the founder of the League of Nations Union,

A U.K. group that worked to foster appreciation

For the work of the League. He also founded and ran

The International Peace Campaign, designed to gather

Support for the League from all corners of the world.

His Lordship made him a powerful and independent parser

Of peace-related arguments and positions, the words

Used to criticize and demoralize Peace-related work.

He called for a “Federation of Europe” – to “save civilization,” and

Said the arms industry sought to “destroy” Peace’s hand.

Carlos Saavedra Lamas won the prize

For his vigorous efforts to end South American fighting

In the El Chaco War, where deliberations that arose

Resulted in reduced army forces, exchanges of prisoners, and righting

A border dispute by negotiation. Argentina’s Justice Minister,

He also worked hard on the South American Antiwar Pact.

Signed by many, it condemned all aggressive acts.

He said, “I shall always be willing to fight for

The Empire of Justice and Equality.”

He re-introduced Argentina into the League, and more –

Worked to ‘denationalize’ school texts on history.

He could hardly believe he’d won the Prize, so venerable,

Calling it “a heraldic trophy” that “surpasses all titles,”

On “a higher plane, where the demand for peace is inexorable.”

When the Nazis knock on your front door,

Do you bravely open it? Swallow the dread?

When you do not know what they will do for

Their Fuhrer, their cause, and you may end up dead?

After his camp internment by Hitler, many

Sought his release by initiating global campaigns,

And many leaders and states began a scrutiny

Of the intellectual’s fate. With growing disdain,

Hitler’s henchmen, ministers Goebbels and Goring,

Fought over his fate, as he now ‘knew too much to be freed.’

To award him the Peace Prize would, well, be alarming…

Sent to a clinic, he just worsened. He was offered a trade:

Give up the prize and go free! He said ‘No.’ In a real ‘fray,’

It was decided to award the Peace prize to this dissident

Fighting for simple rights. So it went to this saint – as meant.