Ambassador Minton's speech, from the end of Cat's Cradle
I just re-read Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, and I was so moved by this speech that I wanted to share an excerpt of it. You can read it in its entirety here. The speaker is Ambassador Horlick Minton, who is called to give a speech in honor of the "Hundred Martyrs to Democracy", a hundred soldiers from the island nation of San Lorenzo whose transport ship was sunk during WWII. This book was published six years before ''Slaughterhouse-Five'', but here you can see that Vonnegut was already thinking about "The Children's Crusade".
“We are gathered here, friends,” he said, “to honor lo Hoon-yera Mora-toorz tut Zamoo-cratz-ya, children dead, all dead, all murdered in war. It is customary on days like this to call such lost children men. I am unable to call them men for this simple reason: that in the same war in which lo Hoon-yera Mora-toorz tut Zamoo-cratz-ya died, my own son died.
“My soul insists that I mourn not a man but a child.
“I do not say that children at war do not die like men, if they have to die. To their everlasting honor and our everlasting shame they do die like men, thus making possible the manly jubilation of patriotic holidays.
“But they are murdered children all the same.
“And I propose to you that if we are to pay our sincere respects to the hundred lost children of San Lorenzo, that we might best spend the day despising what killed them; which is to say, the stupidity and viciousness of all mankind.
“Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.
“I do not mean to be ungrateful for the fine, martial show we are about to see—and a thrilling show it really will be . . .”
He looked each of us in the eye, and then he commented very softly, throwing it away, “And hooray say I for thrilling shows.”
We had to strain our ears to hear what Minton said next.
“But if today is really in honor of a hundred children murdered in war,” he said, “is today a day for a thrilling show?
“The answer is yes, on one condition: that we, the celebrants, are working consciously and tirelessly to reduce the stupidity and viciousness of ourselves and of all mankind.”
The Ambassador then presents a wreath, with a ribbon that says "PRO PATRIA". He concludes the speech by saying:
“As stupid and vicious as men are, this is a lovely day,” said Ambassador Horlick Minton. “I, in my own heart and as a representative of the peace-loving people of the United States of America, pity lo Hoon-yera Mora-toorz tut Za-moo-cratz-ya for being dead on this fine day.”
I think this last line might be a reference to Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum est".
