Jalajesh

I have just finished listening too a couple of books on CD about children in war. I listened to this young man's book, "War Child." His name is Emmanuel Jal. He was a boy soldier fighting in Southern Sudan. This young man went through hell. You don't have any problems. This man and Ismael Baeh ("A Long Way Gone") and so many other boy soldiers in Africa know the absolute worst that life can be.

Somehow this young man managed to survive. Through is faith and music, he has come to a great standing in the world and brings a message of peace.

He hated Arabs. Killed Arabs and their black Muslim supporters, but mostly, as a boy soldier, he wanted to kill Arabs for what they had done to his family. Jalajesh is what these boys were called because they were the bravest and often most cruel of the military. His descriptions of war make me wonder why folks have ever thought that war was a glorious and fun adventure. His descriptions are things I've known to have existed for thousands of years. Folks don't read, hear, or see these things and would prefer not to think of them. Then new wars start and so many folks jump back on the band wagon.

After he escaped the war, he went to school, and helped his fellow refugees get educated as well. He became a Christian rap star and recently even cut an album with an Arab Muslim. It is artists, folks, who will bring us peace.

I am not Christian nor Muslim, but I would definitely invite this young man into our house and feed him. You don't mind, do you, Shusli?

I also listened to a book called, "Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow," by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. This book describes the Hitler Youth programs of indoctrination of the children into the fold of Nazism. "Hitler Youth" tells the story of individuals who were caught up in it, those who struggled against it, and youth victims of it. Susan also talks about how the young Nazis fought with with a ferocity and bravery far and above normal soldiers, and their severe troubled lives afterward upon finding out that they were supporting a mass murderer who lied to them.

It is interesting how folks wrap their minds around war. Here in the states, most folks have not experienced a war and many jump on the war supporting band wagon. They won't go fight it themselves. They won't do their own killing. They won't stand in the heat of the desert for days on end in mass boredom with that tension that is always underlying. They won't feel the intensity of trying to survive a battle and coming home with stories of shitting and pissing their pants. They know nothing of war. They don't hear the stories of the millions of refugees, those whose families have been murdered, etc. They march forward without question like good little Naz...er...I mean americans.

War has many patterns: raping women, raping children, torture, massacres, genocide, oppression, PTSD, refugees, disease, environmental destruction, infrastructure destruction, and many more. One I am now seeing more clearly is the use of children. Indoctrination as future soldiers for a military whose leadership doesn't fight the battles. Heck, we all know co-King George never saw a battle and how that happened! We all know Don "Torture" Rumsfeld never went through a battle nor knows what war looks like. Folks like these need soldiers, need to influence our youth to become soldiers for them, in order to feed their empire. They go after our youth. Those whom we attack often need their youth to fight back with the adults. Then there are the youth victims and survivors of war who didn't fight on either side.

Just something else to think about when you go out there and demand peace or demand war. You war supporters: "Never support a war you are not willing to take up arms and fight in yourself because you are asking others to do YOUR killing for you..." and dying, and oppressing, and coming home with PTSD, and walking through pollutants, and coming home without all of their body parts, etc.

It is the artists who will save the world, but the world will soon be completely different. I can't wait to see what's gonna happen.