“If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,”

Kansas City, 1918, Ernest Hemingway signed up for Red Cross duty to become an ambulance driver in Italy. In May of that year, he arrived in Paris  to find a city under bombardment from German artillery; by June, he was at the Italian Front. He knew first hand the devastation that came with war. July 8th,  he was seriously wounded by mortar fire, sustaining severe shrapnel wounds to both legs. In spite of his injuries, Hemingway carried an Italian soldier to safety, for which he received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery.  He was only 18 years old. For those of us who have not seen military action, we simply do not know the horror or fear that comes with the life of a soldier.  But we can listen and learn from their experiences.

“You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself.”

“No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one.”

Ernest Hemingway