Causes Worth Dying For

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" Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense , a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientist, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." Dwight D. Eisenhower

We are entering into the 25th year of war in middle east and I'm struck by the ease in which we enlist and dispatch the 2nd generation of soldiers. In my lifetime we initially started bombing Iraq in 1992. I had some friends that enlisted at that time and although that confrontation was short, it didn't cease the level of tension between our countries. Now 20 years later, the sons and daughters of my friends are enlisting and our political stance is that, "We are only occupying Iraq and we are at war in Afghanistan." It was very subtle, how our leaders goaded us in to a lifestyle of war. In a sense, my children have not had a day in their lives where our country is not violently engaged with another country. The media rarely slips in updates of the bloody engagements that we are currently entrenched in. They never report on how many soldiers are lost or how many lives we routinely sacrificed on the altar of peace. Our attention is bombarded by the farcical misadventures of ex-teen pop stars or the illegitimate family multiplications of pro athletes. Our society is blinded by the lights and the camera, while the actions of our youth are being directed by those with a savage lust for greed and power. I have lost the attachment for the reasons we are still destroying cities, homes and lives in the middle east. I feverishly await the day the President will launch a war against, Human Trafficking, a war against Homelessness, a war against the terrible mental health care provided in this country and abroad. These are wars worth fighting for, worth dying for, that can have a true long-lasting impact on the lives of all people. As it stands today, we are losing the war on decency and global representation of deeply compassionate people. Something we used to cherish before we began to develop the children of war. Children who have never known anything but war.