There never was a reason

It was a lie then and it is a lie now. The parents who felt it necessary to believe, or what reason for their child to die? The wives who saw their dreams evaporate in thin air. The children who woke up and had no daddy. It was a lie then and it is a lie now. We can stop it. Only we can stop it. Life is 100 years give or take a decade. Ten years to play, to feel safe, to learn love. Ten years to grow and learn and plan for life. Ten years to fall in love and marry. Ten years to raise a family, to plan a future. Ten years adds up pretty fast, one right after the other. Yet, we let them steal it from us and the words they use; patriotism, freedom, dignity, security, way of life. All those words are down the drain the moment that soldier knocks on your door and says, "I'm sorry . . ." They aren't coming home, your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife, your father isn't coming home. Life stops at that moment and it never really starts again.

Those left must struggle with the questions, must make up the answers. There are no answers. War is good for the economy. Unless of course, you happen to be in it. Unless your child is in harm's way. Where do you go? Where do you run to? where is a safe place? We see the pictures, day after day, running from the war, the wives and children, the old people. Their homes are gone. Yet the band keeps playing, men in suits keep shouting patriotic phrases, blue stars and gold stars go up in windows everywhere. They mean nothing. They mean someone is shooting at your child, husband, father.

It means nothing. Hero means nothing. For someone to be a hero, someone else's child must die. Short of their alloted 100 years, give or take a few decades. Just time to build one small ravine in the Grand Canyon, or contemplate a smear under a microscope. Just time for the spinners of lies to weave another reason why. Ask them. Are their children in harm's way? Are they? Do their wives wonder if they are ever coming home? Do their parents think of all they have saved and hoped and dreamed of for their child? Will he be a taxi driver, will he find a cure for cancer, will he write a poem, will he sing, will he dance, will he fashion thoughts and ideas, will she be president?

It is all a lie and we are all sheep. We follow, sometimes willingly we shout their lies with them, sometimes we wonder, sometimes we protest. But it is not until we lie down and do not move that they will know. Stop. Stop it now. Life is for every soul living, for laughter, for building a home, for courting, for smiling at children, and petting the dog. Life is for every one of us. Life.

Contemplate instead the unimaginable richness of life were the resources now dumped into death and destruction instead used to bring us all together, to assure that no person goes to bed hungry, in pain, or in fear of tomorrow. Think of it - imagine it! Imagine.

No Bravery

Click on the link above and then wonder. . .endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. . . and the pursuit of happiness.

And the right of powerful countries with enormous resources to kill you for no reason whatsoever.