“That’s not our Jimmy.
Something horrible, horrible had to happen to him.”
Yeah, he was sent to war.
That’s what happened to him.
War.
You need not have been in one to understand.
The pictures of innocent children
With missing limbs,
The mothers clutching a dying
Or starving baby.
The hell that is created
For a weeping 19 year old
Who thought he was tough.
The toothless grandfather
Looking over the bodies of all his grandchildren.
The homeless veteran with no legs.
The “what happened to Jimmy” husband
Who drinks himself into oblivion each day,
And is a stranger in his own home.
The perfect setup for the next round
Of vengeance; the continuing the war cycle.
No answers you say?
We’ve got answers.
We can find answers.
But they won’t make anybody rich.
They won’t contribute to imperial desires.
They may not even be politically popular
Especially in the minds of those
Who were never trained in resolving human conflict
Peacefully at the personal level.
Yes, we can find answers
To unify humanity –
To pull together and solve
The problems of poverty, war, injustice, and xenophobia.
If you don’t believe it can happen,
Then get out of the way
Of those who are willing to make peace bloom
By removing the causes of war
And establishing systems that can prevent it.
It could take 50 years.
Do you think we have that much time?
gregswimelar 