NOW IS THE TIME
by Brandon Sokol

NOW IS THE TIME to listen to the voices of children:
"Boredom, shooting, shelling, people being killed, despair, hunger, misery fear. That's my life. The life of an innocent 11 year old school girl. A school girl without a school. Without the fun and excitement of a school. A child without games; without friends. Without nature. Without chocolate or sweets; with just a little powdered milk. In a short, a child without a childhood."
These frightening words are those of Zlata Filipovic during the Bosnian war. She was one of many children who experienced the war first hand. Much of this time she was without water, electricity or the use of a phone. Her people were cut off from the rest of the world for nearly 3 years.
"Whatever happened to humanity?" she asks in her diary.
We struggle to understand it; how can a child possibly grasp it?
Children especially suffer during combat. They are the innocent victims of circumstances caused by another generation. According to a UNICEF survey, 66% of all children in Sarajevo have been in a situation where they thought they would DIE. The TIME IS NOW to relive the suffering of children throughout the world.
This strife in Bosnia is not the first of its kind. In 1914, a SINGLE SERBIAN assassin touched off an ENTIRE WORLD WAR. The HATRED lingers to this day. Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who was forced to go into hiding during the Nazi occupation of Germany. During this time she privately kept a diary of her ANGUISH and TORMENT she endured as she experienced the Tragedy of war.
She writes, "I can FEEL the SUFFERING of MILLION, but yet when I look up into the heavens I think that it will all come right again; that this CRUELTY will end and Peace and tranquillity will return again."
Her voice was not heard until after her death. NOW IS THE TIME to hear a child's plea for peace.
Since the beginning of time war has brought death and despair. During WW2 nearly 6 million people were brutally murdered because of what they believed or where they came from. Bosnia holds a very similar situation: they were fighting about religion, ethnicity, land, minorities and past disputes.
THE TIME IS NOW to relieve the suffering of children throughout the world.
In conclusion, I hope, dream and pray for all leaders of the world to spare the misery of a war and return to a more peaceful alternative.
"Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus once said.
In the words of Zlata, "War is no joke it seems. It destroys, kills, burns, separates, brings unhappiness."
In the book, I dream of Peace.
Edina, 12, from Sarajevo writes," I BEG you in the name of the Bosnian children to never allow this to happen to You or to people anywhere else."
You cannot erase the past but you can certainly build the future. NOW IS THE TIME to realize that all war can achieve is DEATH and MISERY. We anticipate that the future will be promising, but we know what tragedy war can induce, and is that what we want for coming generations?
Go in peace.