>It’s like a flashback to when I was in high school. Beirut is synonymous with war, hostages are being held all over, reporters are being injured, kidnapped, and more. The only difference is that Iran was a big bad guy then, and now it’s Iraq. Oh, wait. Iran is potential trouble now, too.

A few years ago, the U.S. went in to make its “surgical strike” in Baghdad. Based on the oxymoron-type advance “intelligence”, this surgical strike was supposed to take out the key players and end the war before it even started. Um, yeah. Right.

Kids reacted. They reacted strongly, with fear and worry. One asked me, “What if war breaks out when we’re at school?” I could only answer by telling her that while I hoped it wouldn’t happen, we had a procedure in place to keep students informed and to keep them safe. She was new in our school, so I followed up by explaining how we’d handled the infamous day of September 11, 2001. She felt better then. I don’t know exactly which part of our talk made her feel better, but I’m glad we had it. Maybe all she needed was a caring adult to listen and take her fears seriously.

I’m concerned that too many kids are out of school right now, and may be watching too much TV without having any adults to care and listen and take their fears seriously. I am even more concerned that they may be taking war as just another fact of life, or something imaginary like a cartoon or video game.

So folks, I plan to listen and be there for any young ones around me. Please, for their sake, do the same for yours.