It is a shame we still have wars for no reason. We are not conquering
land or ridding the world of evil or transforming cultures. We are keeping the
explosive industry busy. We are also keeping the gravediggers busy.
My town was never bombed or invaded, but was left in ruins. When the
threat of an opposing army coming, fires were started during the evacuation.
The president came into smoldering rubble of a former capitol.
When I arrived reconstruction had been complete with many new changes
and ever growing expansion, but all around were battlefields.
My friends and I would ride our bikes out to a wooded area or an empty
field and find rusty bayonets and mini balls. Some would find cannon balls and
use them for doorstops. A belt bucket find was a treasure.
These were just items used or discarded by armies walking through the
area. A few more inches down there might be bones?
My friends and I would play on hills used for gun emplacements now grown
over without markers indicating who was pointing at whom. Fallen trees had
rotted and new trees hid where kids our age hid vowing to protect their homes.
Today there are live time images of towns and villages and cities
decimated by rockets and bombs. Destructive power my ancestors could not have
imagined. These are the new battlefields.
The images on social media show the screams and the blood and everyone
is glad it is not we.
Will the refugees wandering to save their families from the mayhem come
back to reconstruct broken buildings, roads and infrastructure?
Will the next generation play in empty fields and find mini balls?
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