A Nation Divided

Sadie let the door slam behind her as she came in.

“Hi,” Mom called from the kitchen. “How was your day?”

“It was okay,” replied Sadie. “As good as school gets, I guess.”

“What’s the long face for?” asked Mom. “You look as though you just heard an announcement that all the birthdays have been cancelled.”

“It’s worse than that,” said Sadie. “We are learning about the Korean War in social studies, and it sounds a lot like the Vietnam War going on now.”

“In what way?” inquired Mom.

“In the way that a lot of people are dying and it is scary! I’m not sure if our own government knows what is going on. It’s all confusing.”

“War is indeed confusing,” reassured Mom, but her words didn’t seem to help much.

“The two wars both involve a country that is split in two. Can you imagine our country being divided in half?”

“Well, if you want to talk about countries divided, what about the Civil War?” said Mom posing the question.

“My point exactly!” said Sadie. “Look at the carnage that the Civil War produced! If we are using former wars as the predictor, is the Vietnam War going to end up like the Korean War? How many people have to die for no reason at all?”

“To hear you talk, it sounds like you have a good understanding of what being at war means,” commented Mom.

“It doesn’t take much for a seventh grader to see that the war protesters in Washington might have a good point,” added Sadie.