“There is a ‘’sanctity” involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it.” -  James Baldwin (1924-1987) African-American writer.

So often we take for granted the power and fragility of life, for the power and miracle of birth is often quickly overshadowed by the power of destruction and hate.  A life incubated and joyfully anticipated for nine months can be taken in a rage of destruction lasting less than nine seconds.  For a child is a mere beginning to life, and when war and conflict, take the innocence of youth, they take not only a life, but the future of a country.  Let not the level of peace and happiness in childbirth, continue to be overshadowed by the death of countless innocent lives and futures yet to be seen.

“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.” - Jimmy Carter

Those who suffer disproportionately from all violent conflicts are women and children.  War not only kills children with its bombs and guns, but as conflicts drag on for years and decades, children suffer even more from from malnutrition and disease.  Peace is often ruined or halted by the death of a child, as too often the harsh reality of war leaves many fighting at the cost of a child for a child.

I recently heard someone say in reference to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), “What kind of society does not protect its women and children…this is no society at all.”. What future is there for children who grows up and the only thing they have seen is violence and destruction, what future has been shaped for them, what has been left for them?  Violence breeds violence, and especially in a age where children have witnessed the extreme nature of sexual violence, where the most violent of rapes are the plague of the majority of women and girls, where children breed from war and their mothers are shunned, what future do they see when there is no examples of peace for most of them to witness.  The effects  of war and violence are far reaching, and last long into the future, for it is hard for the future leaders of a country to build a lasting peace when they have yet to witness peace, and thus the burden of war once again falls upon the children.