From my head to my canvas

Earlier this month, I noticed several media organizations reporting on a poster showing members of the Desert Hills High School football team sitting on Humvees and holding military-grade firearms. Some people said it was insensitive, others said that parents were making an issue out of nothing.

I had another thought. As the United States works on determining its exit strategies in two different theaters of war, I wondered if any of these young men could be fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan or some other location for war.

I also thought about the thousands of men and women who have given their lives in these conflicts. My mother's grandfather fought in France in World War I when he was in his twenties. My grandfather left at 19 to serve in the Pacific theater in World War II on a transport ship. I've read or listened to their stories of how the conflict changed them. Mostly for the good. However, the thought still remains in my mind -- these soldiers are often just young men in their teens and twenties. Not that many years elapse between the time of being on the high school football team and the experience of serving in a combat theater during a time of war.

These are the thoughts that swelled in my head as I drew this editorial cartoon.

I don't consider myself a hawk. I don't revel in the bloodshed of our own troops or our enemies. I don't consider myself a dove, either. I don't feel that we should lay down and take it while enemy combatants make war on our people, our skylines or our symbols of America.

But the debate over the Desert Hills did get me thinking about the families of our soldiers -- and yes our future soldiers -- and contemplate over this question: "Could boys such as these be the next to fight and then live or die?"