The Image

We sleep in our homes
safe and warm.
We sit in our schools,
learning information that will be used forever throughout our lives.
Feeling free from danger as we take a walk down our streets.
We hug our families
The warmth of them, the love they enclose us with.

That's the image many of us wish to portray.
But that is inaccurate.

Through our lives,
we grow up.
Innocent when young
but when one grows older,
we make a decision.
Which road to follow.

We all take different routs.
Some not quite as pleasant as the image.

Sometimes, we fight against that image,
out of spite.

Now our homes are not always safe.
People can easily grab an individual.
Everyday, 2,300 are reported missing.
Including young children.
And that is only in America.

Now, our schools go on Lock Downs.
We practice them a handful of times a year
because the communities cannot trust that there is no gun or knife in the pocket of a student.
Or even a stranger, walking freely into ones school.
A young fifteen year old
Last year, only fifteen days after the start of September
got stabbed in a restroom
as a gang related incident.

We cannot step down many of our streets,
without passing by a sketchy character
or a homeless person.
Sick from the cold, without a jacket.
Drugged out of their mind because that is all they feel they can do with there lives.
Or begging for money because they gambled it away.

And last but not least,
not everyone has there families.
So much sickness, so many life threatening things that can cause death that people run from.

But some people,
some people that are important throughout today.
November 11th,
choose to threaten there lives
for us.
For the numerous amount of people that do not even care.
So they can contain and keep war off of our streets.
And even for the street's of places they would never dream about visiting.

Our troops are out, fighting wars 24/7 while we sit here in our own wasteland,
because we decided to make it this way.

Dying, loosing limbs, loosing family members and friends.
Catching diseases they would not get if they stayed home.
This is there choice
and there bravery should be remembered.

Today, November 11th, 2010 is the first year no veteran is alive from World War 1.
We should call to mind all of the people who died for peace.
We should contribute in any way we can to create a peaceful land.
For our sons, daughters, mothers and father.
All of our family to live in.

Hold dear to you the ones you love,
because one day they could disappear like the so many who have fallen.

Remember the centuries that the image was fought for.

November 11th, Remembrance Day.

~~~Hayley Elizabeth.