No matter what your feelings on the war, it is here and we have to deal with it. Since I am not a parent, I don’t spend time thinking about what I was going to tell my kids about the war and US foreign affairs. But as a social worker who spends her internship with adolescents, I realized a lot of parents are not thinking about what to tell their kids. This means they are coming to school with fears, frustrations, and lots of information, some of which is really weird.

Working with these kids has gotten me upset about a few things. First I am annoyed with people and their agendas. Now I have my feelings about the war and how we got here. However, my opinion is not the only one and I don’t think it is fair to present it as such. Unfortunately, some of the people I work with don’t feel the same way. I was working with a group about their feelings about the war—not how we got here, not what they think of the President, but about how this war is affecting them. Focusing on feelings and not issues was my objective, which is why I was miffed when my colleague interjected that the war was only about oil and the group should think critically about US foreign policy. First, that is not what we were talking about. Second, that is only one side. Even if I firmly believed it was “all about the oil and nothing else” I would present the other side. How are we supposed to encourage kids to think critically if we force-feed them our opinions as facts?

I asked the group yesterday, as well as the one today, what their parents were talking to them about, regarding the war. Each one, in some fashion or form, informed me that they were told to “watch tv.” So I am irritated with parents for missing a chance to talk to their kids. I am discouraged because they sent their kids to the television for information, yet wonder why their kids are out of control and don’t talk to them. But then there is the media.

Oh the media. Sure, it is important to let us know that we are at war, give us a little bit about what is going on. But do we need this all the time? I have a kid who did not sleep last night because he wanted to know what was going on. And he could find out because it is the only thing on. In the world of 24 hour coverage, yet not 24 hour bombing, the media is filling it with strange commentators with bad ties and fat heads talking about their take on the strategies and situation. I really think I know too much about where our troops are and what they are going to do next. Do I really need to know this? Is this information going to help me, or the rest of the world, who has access to CNN? I frequently listen to NPR or some news station during my evening commute home and of course today it was filled with “Showdown with Saddam.” The only highlight was when the NPR chic was reporting about a man in Atlanta who had a son in the military who is over there. She asked, “Do you know where he is?” and Dad answered, “yeah, but I am not going to tell you where or say anything that might be information that could jeopardize our troops.” Finally. I thought it was just me that was thinking all this information that the American people “need” so badly could be harmful to those fighting in is war. Not to mention watching the bombing again and again. How many times do we need to see the bombing? It is similar to watching the planes and the towers. Are they showing it for those who were in the bathroom, because the guy with the bad tie is in the bathroom, or are they really trying to traumatize the viewing audience. Our country, especially the DC metro area, has suffered--September 11, the sniper, crazy guys on tractors—people are used to being at a heightened alert, but that is not health. Most of the folks around here are probably suffering from some form of posttraumatic stress disorder.

But let’s just bomb them. Bomb, bomb, bomb. Blow ‘em all up. Not only did I hear this rhetoric from the kids, but from my friends. Was it somewhere lost that millions of people live in Iraq who are not the bad guy but are going to die anyone with our “let’s bomb them all policy?” Did we forget that war is an evil that ends life on both sides, no matter how necessary as the evil is justified to be? Don’t get me wrong—I am not a Saddam fan. I am saddened at how easily the general public forgets, or never acknowledges, how the “kill them all” philosophy kinda neglects the human lives that are involved. I think it is possible to be happy with the bad guys being taken down and still show some respect for those who are lost to make that happen.