Don’t laugh at another’s bogeyman
Here’s a tip: never mock someone else’s bogeyman, lest it be living in your cellar.
I’m old enough to know that there aren’t any monsters under my bed (no room, what with all the stuff I’ve stored there), but I do listen to my children. They’re older, so are their fears. And although a depressed economy, an educational system that doesn’t appear to meet their needs and the sudden onset of winter are enough to keep me awake at night, their fears are going in an unexpected direction.
Here’s a couple of snippets from Facebook.
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I will not fight in the Korea war, screw that.
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Okay… c’tu juste moi qui trouve pas que c’est la meilleure idée de parker un porte-avion entre les deux Corées?
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J’coupe des doigts pour pas chère, en attendant la prochaine guerre de Corée, venez vous assurez d’eviter la conscription!
No translation provided… for the moment. Let’s just note that my three sons all mention Korea and the potential for a reprise of hostilities on a large scale. Not exactly the conflict found in comic books from my childhood, but a war is a war is a war.
At a certain age, there is a risk of finding oneself “under arms”, and historically the choice hasn’t always been a free one. The “Peninsula” has crawled back onto the front page of the newspapers, and the truce hasn’t seemed so fragile in my lifetime. Indeed, the last time Canada “went to war” should have been back in ’52, and it should have been the last time.
Right now, my government doesn’t seem to have much common sense stored up; we’ve had soldiers in Afghanistan for nigh on to a decade, for nebulous reasons. If the situation degrades quickly, will that government remain on the sidelines, or will another generation be put in harm’s way?
