Hunger Games: All for a Children's Crusade

A thought is brewing in my head over "The Hunger Games", and even though I've not read the book, nor have tickets for this weekend's premiere... I've been getting the gist from some as to the story line and some of the real world connections...

So even though the story per se is fictional for sure, there are places in our world where the kids have to do battle, so that society can prosper… Think about it!  How old were the soldiers who fought in previous wars… How old are the soldiers today?  One song I love, is entitled Children’s Crusade by Sting… Listen to the song (via YouTube or other means) and read these lyrics:

Young men, soldiers, nineteen fourteen

Marching through countries they'd never seen

Virgins with rifles, a game of charades

All for a children's crusade

Pawns in the game are not victims of chance

Strewn on the fields of Belgium and France

Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade

All of these young lives betrayed

The children of England would never be slaves

They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves

The flower of England face down in the mud

And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Corpulent generals safe behind lines

History's lessons drowned in red wine

Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade

All of those young lives betrayed

All for a children's crusade

The children of England would never be slaves

They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves

The flower of England face down in the mud

And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Midnight in Soho nineteen eighty four

Fixing in doorways, opium slaves

Poppies for young men, such bitter trade

All of those young lives betrayed

All for a children's crusade