Butterflies and war -life and death

             My attention was captured by the little butterfly collage

    design on the front page of today's Boston Globe ( March 25 ) -juxtaposed

    to all the anti-life war news. I am reminded of a scene right out of an

    old anti-war movie, " All Quiet on the Western Front " . A final moment

    in a young German soldier's life: in a stinking fox hole, he sights a

    beautiful butterfly and just as he reaches out for it is killed by an

    enemy sniper .

            A nature lover myself -like that German soldier who in the

    Remarque novel collected specimens in civilian life - I am glad to read

    that the monarch butterfly population here in New England will return

    to normal.

               But will the young soldiers we see and hear in the news media

    ever return to normal ? Will our country ever return to normal ?

                 Perhaps there is Warren G. Harding waiting in the wings -

    who collects butterflies -as well as bribes - for a hobby.

                   Capitalist normalcy !