Instead of sending our youth out to fight and die for our country, how about allowing them to live for our country.

War should be reserved for self defense only, instead we need to elect leaders who can achieve consensus with our neighbors. Tolerance and empathy should be accepted tools.

Humans are the same under the skin. Our varied environments have made small differences in our color skin, nutrition and cultural habits.

The true cost of war is now becoming apparent. Young men are returning with PTSD, which we used to call shell shock or battle fatigue, and need help their whole lives the families of these young men will pay a stiff price for the rest of their lives.

We seem to forget the old cliché, violence begets violence. We need leaders who have peace as a priority, nay a necessity. I realize that that this message is

War is an abomination. War has the devil laughing and angels crying.

I realize we all know these things, but we seem to be taking war for granted. The U.S. has been using war for a foreign policy, now we have a holy war, the worst kind, for instance the Hundred Years War and the Crusades.

Let us save our best young people for peace, not war. Let us wage peace, war on pollution each other.

Americans used to take great pride in not being aggressors, instead we were defenders of human rights and democracy around the world. The world’s respect and admiration were boundless. As many immigrants came here for our freedoms as our economic bounty.

Somehow our identity has blurred, and we are getting stingy, wanting to limit immigration, which is how so many of us got here in the first place.

Immigrants have always renewed our cultural vitality, added to our identity and reputation. We were always proud to be a melting pot for the world. Are we getting to be paranoid? Are we afraid of losing our country to our immigrant newcomers?

As long as we curtail our schools we deserve to be paranoid, but not from within, as our foreign competitors pour money into their school systems, they insure that they have a place at the economic forefront tomorrow.

We, on the other hand, are insuring that our children will grow up in a fading power, as our economic might is slowly eroding.

Creativity and innovation have made us the powerhouse we presently are, but without education we are following in the footsteps of our third world neighbors in guaranteeing our children a secondary role in global economics.

Military might follows economics eventually, for instance the mighty Soviet Empire fell economically while trying to keep up with us.

So excuse me if you already knew these things, but we all need to remember them when school budgets are cut and wars are used for foreign policy.

Our priorities are skewed, instead of cutting spending and taxes, we need to invest in our future.

Do not waste time saving greedy bankers, save our children’s future. Save our schools, reinstitute auto shops, homemaking, wood shops, and all the electives that keep kids in school.

David Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.