Editor’s note: Cheryl Morin, Joseph’s mom, sent the Sun Journal this short essay. She included a note, which reads in part: “To often people forget or refuse to acknowledge what a child knows or feels. This war is very real and my son’s thoughts and feelings on it are very real as well. It is not my intent to rebut the war but to just show people that our children have their own opinions and are feeling the effects of the war just as we are.” She makes a good point.

If I could stop wars, I would stop them by making agreements with the other state. If I could stop wars, less people will die fighting.

What I would do is tell the state that whatever they want, I will give it to them. Also by stopping wars, less buildings and homes will get destroyed.

If wars kept continuing, the world will not be a better place. Families will be happy because no one in their families died in war.

How do you feel about war and people dying? I sure hate it. Stopping wars might be hard now, but later someone, like me, might be able to. There might be fewer wars. If I stop wars from happening, I would probably be famous and people will remember me.

Like the war in Iraq, I would sure love to stop it.

Lots of people think having war is a great way to settle things, but it’s not. It just makes things worse than it should be.

Today, war is as bad as a 1,000-year-old egg.

Look on the bright side, some wars can last less than a year. Or more.

My Pepere is rebuilding buildings destroyed by war, and he will be doing it for at least a year and a half.

I’m looking forward to being older so I can stop wars and make the world a better place.

It might sound impossible, but it is possible for someone to stop wars.

I want to stop wars, and I will!

Joseph Morin, 9, is a student at Pettengill School. He wrote this essay as a journal entry in class. His grandfather is Sgt. First Class Rene Morin, who is serving in Iraq in C Company, 133rd Engineer Battalion, Army National Guard.

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