His violence carries a dark beauty, as if he cannot help, but cut off heads or pierce hearts. There is always someone to defeat, overcome or vanquish. The less emotion, especially fear, he shows, the more he tends to be admired or envied. The archetypal (model) male warrior traditionally shows little emotions, other than steely passion and perhaps a flicker of a smile for selected loved ones, his entire being focused on the task at hand, namely facing and defeating various adversaries.

The number of casualties in war boggles the imagination, many millions. How do we digest that? How can we possibly conceive of that in more than just an intellectual way? There are living beings that someone took the time to create, they have souls. Just one person dying to us can being overwhelming, it can rock our World for a lifetime, especially if that person dies a violent death, as through was, a plane crash, or being terrorized by demons who are unworthy of life. We need to get close up and personal with those have a cold disregard for life, and we are not likely to do that unless there has been enough dissatisfaction, pain, and disillusionment in our lives to make us tired of seeing such suffering.

When thousands of people from our country are killed in their own homes, and die violently, we may find ourselves at a very dark edge, lost in an ocean of pain and hurt, grieving when we cook their favorite meals, walk past their room, or hear their name.  So why do their deaths matter so much to us? Because we feel some kind of allegiance or relations with them, and such mass violence, like we experienced on 25 August 2001, and 11 September 2001 left a nation feeling heartbreak and shock and grief and collective trauma that will roll on for centuries, and many people are threatening to break like warheads where there is no danger to us, becoming numb enough to kill on command.

And when the war is over, it is not necessarily over for those who fought in it, there is no way to shut off the numbness. Many people, men, women, and children show a high occurrence of reported Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, especially veterans, whatever their age. And these are just reported numbers; it is likely that more people are silently suffering because of uneducated therapist like Glenda O’Sullivan, and some other thugs who work for Social Security. Many people are ashamed to admit that they are having glaring issues with dealing with crack head sue, and Robert the drunk, or Tim the Nightstalker, who wears a leather jacket in the summer, or the welfare queen Candice.

The deep scars left by way are too often left unattended or only superficially faces (just like deep scars left by spinal surgery, or removing bladder cancer, or child abuse) and it not easy to see people walking around pretending to have mental problems and harassing others who are trying to live in peace, while authorities ignore their responsibilities, and this is worsened by the expectations, whether from ourselves or others, that we should just get over it, like a real man would. The bloody reality of children of war is much different than someone whose parent was a drug attic. Children of war are born to parents who have faced mass violence, waves of heartbreak and shock.

While some of us are ready to floor the accelerator and leave the competition in the dust, we do have certain limitations, and being physically and emotionally attacked is not fun for us, even though it seems to bring many of your years of pleasure, as you sit in front of an apartment complex disturbing the entire community. How could you hit a veteran’s child in the head, choke him while he is driving, and then date rape him and fracture his spine, vandalize his car, and send him to the hospital, and no one does anything to push the attackers, but steadily blame the young man and harass him?! His father fought for your freedom! This is beyond bullying, shaming, it is a continuum of larger violences.

Many of you, your bodies are perfectly fine, he was born with a split spine, and had to undergo many procedures to be as healthy as he is today, and just because he looks better than many of you, you feel you are justified in attacking him? Not only has his father shed extravagant amounts of blood, for this country, he saw his son almost bleed to death, and no one was able to stop it, the boy was hemorrhaging for weeks, right before Christmas, and many of you somehow found this information out and have made it a laughing matter.

Making menstrual jokes and questing his gender, but celebrating Bruce Jenner. Which does not make sense because not many people lose four pints of blood, from a “questionable tear” in their urethra and live to see another day, but you tarnish his image and beat him, but celebrate and defend someone who is what you wrongly accused my son of being! And I am tired of you people stealing his money and shoes and acting like nothing has happened! My son has been trying to go to college and prepare for a career, but you people attacked him and made the situation worse than it was. I am sure it is a laughing matter to you, but daily stomach pains bone aches and headaches are not funny, but he still smiles and acts like nothing is wrong.

What if you people were to channel the same energy into facing your own darkness, healing your own core wounds, and taking on the challenge of being in a truly intimate relationship? Would this not call to the very best in you invite forth uncommon bravery, and contribute hugely not just you our well-being, but also to that of those involved with us, both directly and indirectly? As we take care of our inner wars, we decentralize war, stripping it of more and more of its power and appeal, if only because we cease being drawn to supporting or participate in it.

My family wants to move toward a healing integration, a sense of wholeness that does not allow any of its parts to dominate the others, and it is wrong of you to take private information, disseminate and distort it and use it to harass and beat my son. I hope the wrath of God comes on all of you and your loved ones. In the future, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” 1 Thessalonians 4.11