This week Linda has given us arm to use either as a word or as part of a word for our Stream of Consciousness posts. I have chosen to use it as part of the word, Armistice.

Ninety-Nine years ago today, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month an Armistice was signed between Germany and the Allies, which went on to signal the end of the First World War or Great War as it was also known.

Despite the terrible stories that emerged, young boys signing up, never to return home to their parents; the appalling conditions in the trenches, atrocities seen that we would never want to experience in our worst nightmares; men shot for being ‘deserters,’ or if they didn’t enlist to go to war, being given a white feather which was a symbol of cowardice, trying to shame them into enlisting, just over twenty years later, there was another World War and many other conflicts followed after that.

So many lives lost and others changed forever. The flashbacks, missing limbs, mental illness and damaged lungs, just some of the horrendous legacies many were left with. The bereaved parents, widowed women and fatherless children left trying to cope not only with their losses but in some cases struggling to survive with no emotional or financial support.

Sadly, it seems in this volatile world that we are living in that life is becoming expendable. We have seen so many instances of gunmen opening fire randomly, killing innocent people, in some cases children. Others have no regard even for their own lives and blow themselves up, often resulting in others being maimed, injured or even killed in the process. Again, lives ruined, families broken irreparably, heartache, pain and suffering.

There has to be another way…..