I keep thinking about songs like "Christmas in the Trenches" and "Let the Band Play Dixie" in which song brought opposing parties together, and efforts like Bread and Roses who bring healing song to those who probably have the least of it, yet need it the most. Sometimes war is just inevitable. But it is up to humanity to use force with all possible restraint and to focus more on the connectedness of all humanity and the idea that "we are all in this together". (Who is doing what and for what reasons to help or hinder the effort is another matter, altogether and for another thread, methinks.)

If we face other individuals and societies with distrust and hostility, we will inevitably get the same back with all the war we can handle, and more than we probably care to. On a micro scale, raise children with abuse, and you guarantee patricide, matracide and full prisons. But raise them with love and trust and they go forth and "save the world." I'll take the later.

It's hard to talk this way without plutzing to connect it with real-world actualities (and there are soooo many other threads about *those*!). So I'll wrap up before I do. But it is irrefutable that the attitudes we send out have a profound affect on those around us, and far beyond.