Red Rover, Red Rover

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

We are now in Day 5 of Trump and Bibi Netanyahu's war on Iran, with the US body count standing at six with reports of another five to eighteen having been seriously wounded.  One news report this morning disclosed that the entire Iranian Navy has been sunk and that the US and Israel have complete control of the skies over Iran.  All of that winning, yet we are still being told that the war will drag on for weeks - or longer.

In a world now controlled by social media, those opposed to the war are no longer marginalized to peace protests and marches in major cities or on college campuses, and many isolated protestors have begun to feel quite at home painting their rage across the social media landscape.  I saw a post on Blue Sky a day or two ago that was not only funny, but left me with a sense of nostalgia for my days in elementary school back in the 1950's - and especially the best parts of those days - recess!

The posting on Blue Sky was a barb directed at the Trump family, and Barron Trump, the President's youngest son, in particular.  Barron, a college freshman at New York University who lives at home with his highly protective mother, Melania, will be 19 in a couple of weeks, a prime age for service in the military.  The message read, "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Barron right over."  Its purpose was to highlight the historic truth that the children of the rich and powerful rarely fight in our nation's wars.   The rich start wars and profit from them, while the poor do the actual fighting and dodge the bullets.

There have been notable exceptions to that.  One of Sam (Walmart) Walton's sons was a medic in Vietnam, one of Joe Biden's served in the Middle East during the Bush Wars, and two of John McCain's sons served in combat, Jimmy as a Marine in Iraq and Douglas as a Navy pilot.   But for the most part, the rich kids sit safely at home nursing their bone spurs and partying.

Members of Donald Trump's family have never served their country in uniform, that is historical fact.  Barron was singled out in that particular Blue Sky post because of his age - being just perfect for military service - but it is his older siblings who have already taken so much from America, who should be spotlighted for their disinclination to serve.  

But the basics remain:  the rich start wars and profit from them while the poor carry the rucksacks and rifles as they trudge through the rain and mud of time eternal.

There was considerable clamor over the Internet about the suggestion of Barron serving his country in uniform, and the White House felt compelled to quickly point out that at 6' 9", Barron is too tall for military service.   It turns out that all of the branches of service have a height limit of 6' 8".   He could probably still get in if he was insistent and his Daddy used his commander-in-chief authority to bend the rules, but let's not hold our breath waiting on something like that to happen.  (The maximum height requirement is to accommodate existing uniforms, gear, and military equipment which was not designed for potential NBA stars - and it is a more respectable deferment reason than "bone spurs.")

War continues, but I don't know whether Red Rover does or not.    Red Rover was a playground game where a large group of kids divided into two smaller groups and each group formed a line with arms linked and stood facing the other.  Then the kids in one line would should to the other line - "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Billie (or Joe, or Susie) right over.  The kid who was singled out had to run at the opposing line and try to crash his (or her) way through a set of linked arms.  If the runner was successful, he (or she) would take the people whose arms he (or she) had gotten through back to his (or her) original line, but if that person was unsuccessful, he (or she) would stay in the line that he (or she) had failed to penetrate.  At least that's how I think we played it at the Noel School.

Ding ding, ding!  That's the bell.  Recess is over!