I was dismayed to hear of the suspension of pupils from Blatchington Mill School by head teacher Mr Hunter.

These pupils should be applauded, not suspended.

What was more disturbing, was the grotesque rhetoric from an employee at American Express over the destruction of the US flag.

This employee obviously lives in some sort of fictional world which encompasses a warped sense of Orwellian logic, where a piece of material holds more value than people's lives.

This was highlighted by the response of the employee who wanted to 'tear into the crowd and teach them a lesson in what war was really about'.

These children know what war is about, they don't need to be beaten by American Express employees to be shown how idiotically violent our world has become.

These brave young people were risking suspension so as to protest about men, women and children being slaughtered by Bush's stormtroopers in an illegal war.

They have already learnt the greatest lesson known to mankind: That killing innocent people is not the answer.

There are two futures presented here: There is Bush's way, which is stampeding across the world like some sort of modern-day extremist, religious crusader, hiding behind anachronistic words such as 'freedom' and bombing people in the guise of liberation.

Or there is the children's prophetic sense of our future. They are offering us a way out; presenting us with a world of dialogue and understanding. Our future is being given an olive branch, a life line, which is the antithesis of the bellicose world of Bush.

These children are the greatest hope for our future this world has ever seen. Let's grasp that branch before someone teaches them otherwise - the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

-Dennis Hickson, Osmond Road, Hove