It has always seemed sad to me that politicians declare war & it is the people who have to die. Then after a while, no one really knows what they are fighting & dying for. Land? Oil? Freedom? The people who fight, get wounded & die are not free. They are battle scarred, or dead. The people who do not fight but get caught in the cross-fire are not free. I recall seeing films & reading books as a kid where it was not the people who fought & died. There was that old time way of settling disputes when the leaders of the "opposing" groups had to "duke it out!" The guy who won got to be the leader of everybody. If the winner was a bad guy who was mean to everyone, then some one would step up to challenge the leader & "duke it out" & eventually a better leader would spring forth. Of course, this is fiction. We all know that leaders never actually participate in battles. Where would they plug in the jacuzzi on the battlefield? What if the leader didn't have time to go workout & happened to be a foo-foo? Then, of course, the media which can easily be controlled by a dictator can tell whatever fiction about "righteous indignation, & righteous wars" as desired to get the people angry at the evil foreigners. If the foreigners have killed, then "an eye for an eye & a tooth for a tooth." Thus it goes until an eye for an eye & another eye for another eye until all are blind & cannot see. Scriptures can be interpreted in any way which is desired to prove one's wrongdoings as being righteous. Too bad all those "righteous" dictators & politicians don't practice "right use-ness!" Then when all the scriptures of all the major religions would be read, we might actually remember that we are all human, with the same basic needs & the same basic hopes & dreams for the future of our families, & our childrens' children. Sometimes I wonder what all the peace marches & sit-ins for peace were really all about. Has everyone forgotten? What is peace nowadays but the brief spaces between wars. Perhaps if enough of us refuse to participate in hating other people, right in our own little neighborhoods, then maybe some folks would take that with them to other neighborhoods. Then maybe some folks would refuse to hate others in their own little neighborhoods back home in "the old country." Then maybe . . . Shalom.