Debbie Kates: Stop the madness of war 

Thank you and kudos to Allen Woods for his eloquently written, insightful column on Veterans Day describing war as it actually is: old men (and it is men) sending young people to kill other young people they don’t know before those people kill them [”The war machine marches on”]. On its face it is absurd, yet one can not negotiate with people who have come to kill you. Breeding hatred is necessary for war to exist. And so it goes, on and on.

A new paradigm and new leadership are needed to stop this age old madness. So many resources and so much human brilliance goes into finding new ways to kill people.

I am reminded of a story told told to me by a lifelong friend who has spent her career in international development. When aid was delivered after the Haiti earthquake, there was chaos and violence. The workers solved the problem in one day. How? They only allowed women to collect the aid. Women lined up and aid was delivered without any violence.

Does anyone actually think if women were in charge of the world’s governments they would have ever thought up war? I think not.

Debbie Kates

Greenfield