MAE JULIAN
I feel certain, that many of you, like I, am concerned about the looming war ahead. I find myself “switching opinions” on whether I am pro or con. I think the evil murderous monster, Saddam, must be stopped. He is so wrapped in his own ego, power and control that he will not stop unless someone stops him. Then, sometimes, I find myself thinking of the destruction of lives. Theirs and ours. I look at the faces of our young eager soldiers and their resolute determination to defend with honor, and then I look at the pitiful children of Iraq. They wander in such abandon, with no voice to speak for them. It is a conflict indeed, and one I’m sure many in my reading audience have experienced too.
Many of our soldiers from Fort Knox, here in Kentucky, have been called. We watch on the news each night as they leave their families and board the planes to take them to the Middle East. One soldier has a new firstborn, who has heart problems that will surely take her life before he returns. I watched a scene on T.V of a husband and wife clutching each other, the husband dressed in Army camouflage, the wife clung to her husband’s embrace one last time before he left for the Middle East. Standing alongside them was their 8-year old daughter, her face was knotted in worry and sadness, her small hands folded, as if in prayer holding a small American Flag. I could not imagine my father having to go away and leave us, with the possibility that I might be seeing him for the last time.
My uncle, my dad’s brother, served in WW2. My sister and I went to Florida to “interview” him on tape a few years ago, because we knew he had a story to tell, and that he would not live long. He told us that war should never happen. I asked him what the alternative would be. He bellowed, “Negotiation!” He was one of the lucky ones to return. I figured that the one who knows best is the one who has been there, just as I think the person who can give you the best advice on child rearing is not the headshrinker, but the mother who has a houseful of kids. Well…my uncle said to negotiate. Whether he is right or wrong is not for me to say, but…he was there on the battlefield.
In the “War Prayer”, Mark Twain wrote, ” If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! ‘lest without intent you invoke a curse upon your neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain on your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse on some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.”
That applies to what we rain upon our enemy.
And lest we forget, that applies to what sorrow we bring to ourselves.
Some have said that war may sometimes be a “necessary evil” but it is always evil. Others have said war is “an absolute failure of imagination, scientific and political.” I know that I am powerless to do anything to affect this situation. Many of you may feel the same. As in many other situations of my life, it feels like I am standing by to pick up the pieces.
Blessings to my Waynedale friends, and prayers for all the soldiers and their families as we go through this difficult time together.
Mae
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