The story behind Another Mother's Child

The story behind Another Mother’s Child is a story of elitism, hypocrisy, and privilege. It’s a story about two women, both of whom I’ve known personally. The first is an upper-middle class white housewife who has two young sons and who is a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, even to this day. I wasn’t at the party that’s mentioned in my song, but someone related the details to me who was there. The subject of the war came up, and this person said to the housewife something to the effect that she could send her boys to war. The housewife’s reply was if they were drafted she would move her family to Canada, and that the soldiers who signed up knew what they were getting into. This, to me, speaks volumes of the hypocrisy of the well-to-do in this country, and the privilege that they feel for themselves. Others—the children of other mothers—not only can die, but should die so they can keep their standards of living, lifestyles, safety, and peace of mind.

The other person actually served in the Army—the 1st Army, the Big Red One—during peacetime during the Reagan administration. She’s now a middle-aged white woman who served as a communications specialist sitting in one of those trailers doing God-knows-what—turning knobs and hacking out Morse code, I suppose. Anyway, during one drill when it was assumed that the Russians were going to attack it dawned on her that the enemy keys in on radio signals and communication people are the first to die. Basically, communication signals act as a homing device for missiles, throwing up a flag that says, hey, I’m over here. Her story, the way she told it to me, was that she got a transfer back to the States to serve her country as, I’m not kidding, a court reporter. Now that’s laying your life on the line, isn’t it? Hanging around lawyers. Anyway, whenever I think of this story I can’t help but think of the idealistic men and women who don’t go in for a transfer, don’t run, and are killed or maimed physically or mentally in the pursuit of their beliefs and fulfilling the obligation that they swore they'd do. It doesn’t matter if you believe in what they believe in. What’s at stake here is something sort of sacred to human existence.

But still, in a true Darwinian way, I wonder who is right. Maybe the two women, who are so selfish, actually are the better of the species. They’ll live, survive, even thrive thinking of themselves, and in turn, pass that behavior along to their offspring.