Mine

On Mother's Day, five Maasai boys, all under the age of 9, went to herd their families' cattle. Near their home, they found a strange piece of metal laying in the ground and began to play with it. The toy was unexploded ordinance from the nearby Kenya Army firing range. Their lives were ended quickly and brutally. It was likely left by a soldier walking through the area, too tired to carry the round any more. There were no signs, and no fences. Other rounds were later found in the area, including one brought home by a child. Explosions like this had killed cattle and maimed Maasai in the past, but never at this scale. The army and police tried to whisk away the boys and the evidence, but locals quickly called the media and took pictures to ensure the story of this negligence was not overlooked.
This tragedy struck our community hard. Our friends at MIDI were effected directly, one staff was the aunt of one of the boys, another was a neighbor and at the scene minutes after the explosion. The government has promised to compensate the families and the community, but what use is money when your only child is gone?
Unfortunately, this story is all too common around the world. even worse than personal laziness, armies use weapons such as landmines and cluster bombs that leave a legacy of death wherever they are used. Uninhabitable communities lay deserted, the footprint of war plunged into the loose soil for a child to find. Annually, thousands of civilians are killed by these weapons, not counting those maimed for life.
It is time to make life a priority instead of death, working to eliminate cluster munitions and landmines despite their being "cost-effective" dealers of death. If you want to respond to this incident, learn about the international bans on landmines and cluster munitions, neither of which have been signed by the US. Our country claims to lead the world in human rights and freedom. Isn't it time we lead in ending the cruel and inhumane practice of laying mines? http://www.icbl.org/