Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

There is currently an abundance of comments by pundits about the current state of U.S. Government IT procurement and the declining emphasis on in-house technical competency. Majority are TBU (True But Useless) to those of us who actually need to get things done.

My advice to fellow Government technical professionals when dealing with our wondrous bureaucracy can be summed up by this classic by the Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

 

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

 

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas