A Privileged Perception

You take a boy who doesn’t know his history, his worth, or himself and plop him in a city filled with violence and drugs and gangs, he has nothing else to claim but his set or his block. For the cause of respect, he fights and kills enemies, real and imagined.

You take a boy who doesn’t know about difference, diversity, or self-pride and plop him in the countryside filled with separation, klans, and guns, he has nothing else to claim but nationalism or patriotism. For the cause of service, he fights and kills enemies, real and imagined.

In the West, the sun sets too soon and two mothers weep – only one more bitterly than the other.