it never ends

I was thinking about a trip to France today

    It must have been the third or fourth year Julia was there.  We stayed at a chateau in a small village some 90 km north of Paris.
    The family that owned it had to do some major repairs after The Great War, which started 100 years ago today for the United States.  The powers that be were already in the thick of battle by the time we joined.  Fresh fodder for the canons, I guess.
    Like I said, it was a small village.
    The house itself had been in the thick of battle, at some points behind German lines, at other points behind French lines.
    And in every town I have been in in France, there is a memorial to the dead from that war and the one that followed.
    We went to Verdun, which was a nightmare.  Eight months of fighting and when it ended, nobody had advanced or retreated.  Hundreds of thousands of men died.  I don't think there could have been a family left untouched by the horrors of that war.
    There is a building called The Ossuary there.  I don't think I spelled it correctly, but I am close.  In the basement of the building are rooms where piles of bones are stacked.  Femurs, here, tibia there, skulls over there.  They were killing so fast and so furious that when men were buried, they were often blown up again.
    Millions of people died in The Great War, and millions more died in the second war.
    I don't understand people.
    What makes us so violent?  The number of shootings that take place on a daily basis in our country is a shame.  And why do countries go to war?  Land?  Riches?  Power?
    I used to think humans were highly civilized, intelligent creatures, but that thought passed from my mind years ago.
   We might be the worst of the creatures God or whomever or whatever put on the earth.
    I had always hoped that someday there would be peace in the world, but I have come to accept that will never happen.
    By the way, did you know that the Cantigny Estate in Wheaton is named after the French town Cantigny?  Col. Robert McCormick, publisher of the Tribune, was in charge of an artillery unit and they saw the first action by US forces in France.
    There is an amazing history of the First Division, The Big Red One, in the Wheaton museum.  It makes for an interesting visit.  It is currently closed, but will reopen later this summer.
   I just hope our latest experience in Syria does not lead to bigger, and worse, conflict.