Casualty

I was a preschool teacher for many years. The classrooms in which I worked always had dress-up areas. Pre-schoolers love putting on outfits and pretending to be different types of people: moms, firemen, bakers, police officers, teachers. Dress-up is for four-year-olds. So is playing at toy soldiers. How many of our young men and women - and young men and women of other cultures - have lost their lives because of men such as this one, and their penchant for playing dress-up and toy soldiers from behind the safety of a mahogany desk? 

I am not a fan of the military, as a whole. I don't understand why, when so much blood was shed in the effort to eradicate slavery in this country, any individual would willingly sign up to become the property of the government. On the other hand, I thank God such people exist because, truth be told, most people who enlist do so because they want to make the world a better place. I respect that. We all should.  Men in positions of power donning these uniforms as if they were costumes, and treating war and military service as if they were bits of play-acting is disgraceful.

Play time is over.