“I Will Never Let You Go to War”
When my son was about five, he asked me if he would have to go to war and fight. I was quite forceful. I said, “No, never. I will never let you go to war. Ever.”
I forgot about it, but several years later there was some discussion in the car and he said, “Mommy said she would never let me go to war!” I could tell [see] he felt completely assured that I would make sure of that.
At the recent RC men’s and women’s workshop, Tim Jackins asked us to think about the effect it has on the mind of a male to be—or to imagine being—in the position of “kill or be killed.” I remembered that the military is the number-one institution of men’s oppression. And I also remembered that long-ago promise to my son and how meaningful it had been—to both of us.
USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of parents
(Present Time 190, January 2018)