How much more violence?

At 11:30 am, I was sitting in the break room at Como Elementary, eating my lunch and reading the Pioneer Press. That St. Paul paper is not my ideal publication of choice, but I always set it next to me anyway and peruse the articles blankly, so that I don't have to awkwardly stare around the room as I'm eating.
On the front page of the Local News section from yesterday, there was a feature about the 50 Minnesotan soldiers who have been killed in Iraq since the war began. I read over some of the names and towns of origin; their ages rarely were above 25.
My age. They're mostly MY age.
In the rows and rows of snapshot obituaries, I suddenly recognized a face. . . .it was John Benson! John and I had dated very very briefly in high school, set up by friends. Even though we were from neighboring rural towns, we tried to meet up or talk on the phone from time to time. I hadn't spoken to or heard from him since we were juniors in high school, and now I was finally looking at his face again, a stoic expression for his military portrait. His name, age, hometown and date of passing were all that described John, this human being whom I knew once, to thousands of Minnesotans.
Seeing John's picture in the list of the deceased somehow brought this abstract idea of war into a concrete knot in my stomach. I couldn't finish my lunch, I could only sit and stare at his picture, and wonder about the enormous injustice of this war, and the unjust loss of his young life. It should not be like this. . .

My brother, Matt, has also been stationed in Iraq, along with several of my cousins and friends, and I have been able to hear some of Matt's stories about his experiences there. The media only shows us a glimpse, and expects us to understand. But I don't understand! I never will! Why must it be this way? Why must thousands of Iraqi people be dying and millions more be suffering in this unjust loodshed? Why are there American men and women being sent over there to fight and possibly die?

When will violence and death be enough? When will it stop? The massacre at Virginia Tech yesterday, the fallen soldiers and civilians in Iraq, the genocide in Sudan and the continuing war in Uganda. . . .when will this world learn how to seek the communal good and holistic peace and understanding?
Life is so impermanent. . . .we can't keep on living like this. . . .something HAS to change.