I hunger for a world that is permanently at peace.

Unless you have walked in my shoes, or others like me, that hunger for a world that is permanently at peace, you will never know the anguish in my Soul.

I am 80 years old and I have never known our world to be at peace. Born in the “Great Depression”, our world was worthless! In 1933, Germany elected a Chancellor named Adolph Hitler, who surrounded himself with people that were loyal to him, not their country. Unchallenged, Hitler set Europe aflame in 1939, with the invasion of Poland, starting World WarII,
that ended in 1945.

Strife began again in 1949 and in1950, the Korean War began and that ended in 1953.

1962 marked the beginning of the Vietnamese War, when the French, who had occupied this country for about 10 years, after brutal treatment of Vietnamese citizens, requested that the U.S. take charge. We lasted about 10 years with 50,000 dead young people, not much older than you.

The late 60‘s and 70’s brought more fires that had to be extinguished all over the world; from Cuba and The Soviet Union’s crises, that was followed by the Arab oil crises, (one of many),with threats of armed conflict, the India / Pakistan nuclear proliferation conflict and finally, today’s problems of terrorism.

North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Israel / Palestinian conflicts and the rest of the Mideast, caught up in a potential holocaust along with Indonesia and the Chinese / Taiwan verbal conflict in the Pacific.

The cost of this, in lives and in funding these activities, has put this country in debt that my great, great, grandchildren will still be paying.

Is it any wonder that my thoughts and fears, starting with my children’s generation, is feeling much as I do and their children’s generation -- your generation -- is angry and you never know why?