Dona Nobis Pacem

Today is international blog for peace day, or something like that. I'm not sure. Mimiwrites, a blogger, came up with this idea. I found out about it from Becky C, at Just A Girl In Short Shorts Talking About Whatever.

Hokey? Maybe. Everybody puts in the same subject line and I guess the search engines go wild. I'm not sure. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know. (Actually, I am, but don't have the energy right now to figure it out.)

Anyway, I think it's enough to simply raise a hand to say enough of the madness. What war and the military-industrial complex (Eisenhower warned us about this) has done to this country is frightening, to the point where I wonder if we can pull ourselves out of this tailspin.

What do you do when you invade and destroy the wrong country? Even if you can repair all the physical damage, replace all the money in the treasury, how do you repair the emotional damage?

We are so lucky. I know a few people who were in the military. Most of them came out unscathed. I've met a coward, and I've met what I consider a hero, simply because he did what he signed up to do, and came back a changed person.

I know a woman with two sons who vehemently defends the war and supports the current administration, but when the subject of a draft comes up opposes the idea saying the people who signed up for the military knew what they were getting into. I wrote a song called Another Mother's Child about that.

And I think of myself. I went through one round of the draft during the Vietnam War before they abolished it. The draft, that is, not the war. And if I had been drafted I would have gone. I would have been Another Mother's Child. I didn't know anyone in Canada. I didn't have any connections anywhere. I would have been canon fodder.

Another Mother’s Child

The night was young and the people were fun
It was a good time in the ‘burbs.
The wine was red, the beer had head
There even was a little herb.

We toasted our lives, we laughed ‘til we cried
We could have gone happy to bed
Then our hostess spoke, these words she broke
And here is what she said.

They knew what they were getting into when they signed up to serve
It’s hard to believe those words I heard.
Her own blonde kids were safe in bed
No one’s dropping bombs on their heads
So now it’s all up to some other mother’s child.

The war is right and Saddam was a blight
On the good the free and the brave.
Well, whattya say? she repeats it every day
Coming from talk radio waves.

She’s got her pile, her fancy lifestyle
She’s fat and happy and set.
And despite what she preaches
She rather they’re leeches
Than turn her kids into vets.


((chorus)
They knew what they were getting into when they signed up to serve
It’s hard to believe those words I heard.
I can’t question your love
But you’re making me wild
For putting it all on some other mother’s child.

Sometimes I’ve had days when I had to say
Goodbye, to lighten my load
Sometimes I was sad and other times glad
It’s just life living on the road.

I’m doing what I must, leaving a friend in disgust
It’s just that I expected so much more
But when hatred’s the seed I have to pay heed
Or get dragged down with them evermore.

(chorus)
They knew what they were getting into when they signed up to serve
It’s hard to believe those words I heard.
Your own blonde kids are safe,
They ain’t gonna die tonight
And now it’s on another mother’s child.