2008 SECOND PLACE

WAR AND PEACE
Alexa Villalobos
18 years old, Alaska

     The man and the boy walked along the dirt road, lazily swatting at flies. The boy looked at his pa and suddenly said, "When the sun shines victoriously, and the eyes on every human finally see, the world we live in is a world of low self esteem. The hatred is being fired back and forth in our society. We are a place where many children are being shot. Yeah, I soon realize that as a whole we are dying. African Americans are the one's suffering and crying."
     The father looked down, interest in his eyes but said nothing.
     "Yeah, I remember. When I sit down and turn on the news, I am suddenly shocked by death, and see people don't care about shooting each other not even the blacks. I remember. Oh yes, I remember. I will remember that President Bush really didn't care. I remember when the Twin Towers blew up into thin air, and that brothers were killing each other one by one. I remember hearing on T.V. That we were sending our troops to Iraq. It was a really sad day for everyone, especially for all the military wives and their children."
     The father walked on, a tear in his eye, but no words from his mouth.
     "I realize that peace is something that we should be doing for the good of our country. They say a little boy who thinks of peace is odd, but I say that ignoring peace is just sad. Sometimes when you think about peace you think about how great you are to have people who that actually care about your country. Peace means a lot to people but some people don't care about our soldiers, or fighting for our country. War is something that people don't like hearing about."
     Again the father nodded and smiled.
     "One reason why people don't like hearing about the war is because so many just want our troops to come back home. I think that our troops should come home because it is a waste of life being there. I also think that the ones who are still there want to come back because they have family and kids, and haven't shared their lives. Most of the time when you think about war and peace you think about what good things our troops are doing for us, trying to protect us from terrorists. When we think about terrorists we say they are bad people who do bad things and want to hurt our nation."
     The father stopped walking, looking down at his son. He stooped low, pickup up the boy in his arms, kissed his cheek and whispered, "There's hope."