My Little Soldier
May. 21st, 2009 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aphroditeOur husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
~ [ Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe ]
I've recently cleaned out my son's wardrobe.
At the tender age of one, he already possessed a GAP bodysuit with a camo-print logo, and an entire shirt and short set in the Australian Army colours.
My father thinks it's "cute".
I think I want him to grow up knowing that violence begets violence.
That whilst those who fight and suffer and die for their beliefs should be honoured for their sacrifices, they do not pass unquestioned, unexamined.
And, mostly, that this fighting and killing and dying is not something to aspire to.
And that having a penis does not make this his destiny.
~ [ Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe ]
I've recently cleaned out my son's wardrobe.
At the tender age of one, he already possessed a GAP bodysuit with a camo-print logo, and an entire shirt and short set in the Australian Army colours.
My father thinks it's "cute".
I think I want him to grow up knowing that violence begets violence.
That whilst those who fight and suffer and die for their beliefs should be honoured for their sacrifices, they do not pass unquestioned, unexamined.
And, mostly, that this fighting and killing and dying is not something to aspire to.
And that having a penis does not make this his destiny.
