It is definitely not so sweet to die for your country. However, It depends on how you die. (Ross)

.....DULCE et DECORUM EST (Wilfred Owen)

....."If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
behind the wagon that we flung him in,
and watch the white eyes rising in his face,...
if you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs,
obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
...my friend, you would not tell with such high zest
to children ardent for some desperate glory,
the old LIE: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"

                                          (How sweet it is to die for your country.)

.....As I noted in my previous post, what I write here is primarily for the curiosity of my great grandchildren, ad infinitum. If I have any kind of legacy at all to satisfy their understanding of a grandfather they've never known, then it is written here.  Whatever will happen to my books--well who knows? Hopefully they will be preserved somewhere, some day.  For now, I will be copying letters I have received from friends that I have known. These are letters that deal with my relationships with former students and friends that I have lost over time. Here I copy parts of a letter I received from "Sharon" who was a principal of an elementary school in Baldwin. I met her just before I left for a global trip. A snippet of her letter to me before I left on my sabbatical, follows:

.....you are unique. Knowing a person such as you are has been one of the most marvelous experiences I've ever had. I hope it will be an ongoing experience even through the mail for the time being.
.....You are truly the most sensitive, understanding, kind, gentle, generous, loving ,
intelligent, liberal human being I have ever met, as well as being a perfect dynamite lover!!
.....I hope you miss me as much as I miss you.  Love, hugs, kisses, etc.

She said that I was "unique". As long as Wilfred Owen used Latin, I would rather she had said that I was "Sui Generis". 
 
                                                                            Sharon