Children are not Collateral Damage

All around the world children carry on dying, not just from disease or malnutrition or more normal causes, but also from war.
Somali children
And it seems like too many people simply don't care, don't pay attention, don't look, don't listen, because it's not THEIR children dying, so why should they care?

Children shouldn't be collateral damage, innocent victims, accidental casualties. They shouldn't be afraid to sleep or play because of the things going on around them, because of the things they have seen. children should be more than another statistic nameless faceless on a chart. They have a right to sleep and play, a chance to be able to go to school, they deserve a safe place to do those things just like they have a right to air to breathe and food to eat. children should be able to sleep, eat, go to school and play, they deserve a childhood.

We expect no less for our children, why should they be any different?

Remembrance Day, Veteran day, Armistice Day, whatever you call it, was upon us again.

A day to remember those who fought, and those who died, for country, cause, family, home and the often mentioned freedom. Not the day to be politically incorrect about the decision makers and policies behind all the fighting, but a day to remember the simple men and women who fought and survived or who fought and died. Policies, decisions, myths, misconceptions, truth and lies are all for a different day.

Maybe I can't avoid commenting on the larger issues but I can postpone doing so and leave only a quote for now.

"Had a dream, it was war,
and they couldn't tell me what it was for.
It was something they could lie about,
something we could die about..."

Today is a day to acknowledge and remember those who fought, those who fight now, and those who will fight, those who died and those who survived. In all the wars that have been fought, and still are being fought, and perhaps to wonder how many more wars are waiting to happen. In the meantime, a handful of the forgotten.

Ernest Walter Oliver, Sr, Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, WWI - awarded the Croix de Guerre Belge.
Herbert Walter Oliver - who fought in the RAF in WWII in Italy, Sicily and north Africa

Cecil Ernest Hamel, Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, WWI - Whose campaign and discharge medals I will one day pass to my son.

Creed Patton, 29th Virginia Infantry, CSA, company commander for two years during the civil war, and his brother, Leftwich Patton, 29th Virginia Infantry, CSA, who was killed at the Battle of Middle Creek, Kentucky.

And yes, I wear a poppy, I do every year. I also had a hand in the reinstatement of a WWI memorial for fallen RGLI soldiers, once upon a time, just because it seemed necessary. It was a PR exercise that finally got the new memorial created and installed, and mine certainly wasn't the only hand involved, nor is it known by many people, and that's fine. It was just another example of a question that needed asking - in that instance being "What happened to the memorial?"

And speaking of memorials, Labrys's Walk of the Fallen is deserving of mention.