Saving my sons from battle

There's that song again - Buffy Saint Marie singing “Universal Soldier.” I always stop what I'm doing and try to sing along with Buffy. I say “try” because the words are so moving and they get harder to say as I feel the sobs gathering inside me. When she gets to that line, “He doesn't want to kill, but he knows he always will, he's been a soldier for a thousand years,” I can't stop the tears and deep sobbing. Why should I? Should I just sit there with a smile and comment on how good the words are and how beautifully Buffy sings?

I'm a mother with six sons. During the '60s, with some of the boys in their teens, I became a mother who was learning what war really means. Then when draft age was upon us, I became a fierce mother out to save her sons from coming home in body bags.

Where do I go for help? The church was no help. On the contrary, the military lured them in too, and they blessed the bombs and planes and, oh yes, the soldiers too. Blessed them to do what? Prayed over them for what? To be “good soldiers?” What does that mean?