The War Weary Farmer

"Georgia, Georgia,

The whole day through

Just an old sweet song

Keeps Georgia on my mind,

Georgia on my mind...."

Rural Georgia Farm

Peter Muzyka

THE WAR WEARY FARMER

By John M. Birch

"I should like to find the existence of what my father called,

"Plain living and high thinking".

I want some fields and hills, woodlands and streams I can call my own.

I want to spend my strength in making fields green, and the cattle fat,

so that I may give sustenance to my loved ones, and aid to those

neighbors who suffer misfortune. I do not want a life of monotonous

paper-shuffling or of trafficking with money-mad traders.

I only want enough of science to enable fruitful husbandry of

the land with simple tools, a time for leisure, and the guarding of

my family's health. I do not care to be absorbed in the endless

examining of force and space and matter, which I believe can

only slowly lead to God.

I do not want a hectic hurrying from place to place on whizzing

machines or busy streets.  I do not want elbowing through crowds of

impatient strangers who have time neither to think their own thoughts

nor to know real friendship. I want to live slowly, to relax with my family

before a glowing fireplace, to welcome the visits of my neighbors, to

worship God, to enjoy a book, to lie on a shaded grassy bank and watch

the clouds sail across the blue.

I want to love a wife who prefers rural peace to urban excitement,

one who would rather climb a hilltop to watch a sunset with me

than to take a taxi to any Broadway play. I want a woman who

is not afraid of bearing children, and who is able to rear them

with a love of home and the soil, and the fear of God.

I want of Government only protection against the violence and

injustices of evil or selfish men.

I want to reach the sunset of life sound in body and mind,

flanked by strong sons and grandsons, enjoying the friendship

and respect of neighbors, surrounded by fertile fields and sleek

cattle, and retaining my boyhood faith in Him 
who promised a life to come.

Where can I find this world?  Would its anachronism doom it to

ridicule and loneliness? Is there yet a place for such simple ways

in my own America or must I seek a vale in Turkestan where

peaceful flocks still graze the quiet hills.

"I will dwell in Your tabernacle forever;
let me find refuge and trust in the shelter of Your wings."
Psalm 61:4

John Morrison Birch

(1918-1945)

Georgia farm boy and  American war hero,
and the namesake of the anti-Communism,
 pro-America John Birch Society,
John Birch was a Baptist missionary serving in a remote
  province of Japanese-occupied China during WWII,
 when, through a series of remarkable coincidences,
 he came to the aid of Colonel James Doolittle and
 several other downed American fliers,
helping to lead them to safety.

John later joined the U.S. Army and served as an
Intelligence officer under the command of General Chennault.
For three years, his undaunted courage and leadership
 skills helped to rout the enemy Japanese forces,
 bringing about a successful end to the occupation.
However, not too long after Japan's surrender,
another enemy force quickly moved in to occupy
 the war-ravaged Chinese landscape.  

"The War Weary Farmer" was written by John Birch

in April, 1945 only four months before he was

brutally murdered by Chinese Communists.
May he rest in peace.

"Georgia On My Mind"

(1930)

Lyrics by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell