Civil War

"Isac!" my mother yells up to me. I am a Senior in High School, about to graduate Valedictorian. I answer back, and she replies, "Come here for a minute..." Her voice is aquiver and sounds like she is about to burst in tears. I come right away, and see an open blue letter in her hands. "Oh." I say. I have been dreading this. My mother has more.1

I walk to my room slowly, and hear my name called. I look back and see that my dad staring at me, standing next to my mother, who is now on the floor sobbing. I shake my head. Now in my room, I flop on my bed. My phone rings, and rings. The answering machine picks it up, and I hear that my friend has gotten that blue letter, too. Along with almost all of our other friends. I turn towards the wall, and accidentally a tear slips down my cheek. I wipe it off and tell myself that I have to be strong. Men don't act like this. Men SHOULD go to war. Another tear slips.2

On television that night, I hear our President say, "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach...No I don't like it any more than you men." What's that mean, I ask. Just look at your young men fighting, your women crying, your young men dying! If you hate it, then stop it! Start communicating! Apparently the President doesn't hear my thoughts, because he goes on with his speech. 3

My dad turns off the TV and my mom starts to cry again. "Don't go." he says. I look at him. "I have to. It's my duty; to preserve my freedom." But I think about what he says. Do I really have freedom, when it's not in my hands, but in someone else's who says I have to die for it? I should have the choice to go to war or not. Out of everyone's hearing, I say out loud, "I don't need your civil war. Look at the blood we're spilling. Look at the world we're killing. I don't want to hear no more; I don't need your civil war!"4

Peace could last forever, said one man. I heard they killed him, with their black armbands on. When everybody's fighting for their promised land, things just don't go right. I don't need your civil war. I don't need one more war. What's so civil about war anyways?