
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991                   TAG: 9103070470
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DON'T IMPLANT WAR FEAR IN YOUNG MINDS

A RECENT letter about the need to prepare our children for war reminded me of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. I was an elementary student at a school in Jacksonville, Fla.

The civil defense had organized an absolutely absurd and futile plan to save children in case of an attack. They were to be herded into designated mothers' cars and driven to St. Augustine, Fla., some 40 miles south of the target area.

My military-pilot father, realizing that chaos would stop transportation of any type, told us to run directly home, pull the mattress from our bed and get under it in the hallway. Neither plan was a safe haven or consoling to me.

These memories have plagued me my entire life. Having a father who served in World War II and three tours in Vietnam and Korea, I have had my share of war memories. The preparedness and accompanying stress of the refuge plan did in no way help us children or the world at that time.

How ludicrous it is to want to protect children by implanting the terror of war in their minds. Please don't submit our children to this horrible and mind-disfiguring trauma by dwelling on the negative. Worry is always counterproductive. Let the children be happy. Visualize peace. LEILANI O'TAYLOR ROANOKE

by CNB