I've been in a low place lately -- so low, it's right on the edge of despair -- worrying about the future of our city's children. The downward trend started in October when a student I know killed someone, an adult who propositioned him for sex in exchange for money. Then there were a number of large fights among students, and a rash of parents and other relatives entering schools to threaten (or hurt) staff or kids.

The day before Thanksgiving, I called my partner, Tina, at school. The sun was shining and we were planning to go see my family in a few hours, so I was feeling pretty good.

"We're basically in lockdown," she said. Her small high school's day had been disrupted by a series of arguments that threatened to become physical. One central dispute involved Student A's love note to Student B's boyfriend. One Student A partisan and one Student B loyalist just couldn't let the disagreement go -- even after A and B had found some modest resolution -- and one left school and came back armed with a knife and a sock packed with a brick. The staff confiscated the weapons. The police were called. The armed student was arrested, while the other students waited in locked classrooms.

By the time all the students from the clashing factions were escorted home, all the paperwork filed, and the staff's nerves settled, we were hours late to go see my family in Illinois. As late as it was, we made the three-hour drive that night because we needed to get away from everything here in Milwaukee.

Some people head home during the holidays with a feeling of dread, fearing the little skirmishes in a long-fought family civil war. I wasn't worried, though. This year my extended family could only be a balm on my soul. I'm more concerned about the war that our kids are fighting every day here in Milwaukee.

Our military leaders are still reluctant to call the chaos in Iraq "civil war," long after it's become apparent to everyone else on the planet that that is exactly what it is. So let me be the first to call our children's fight what it is: a civil war. It's got a lot of armies, consumes a lot of people, and seems endless. Kids are threatening, hurting and killing their peers. They're carrying on the conflicts started by the adults in their lives. In spite of their behavior, they are begging for our help to stop it.

I got some sleep while I was out of town, reenergizing myself for the struggle I'd face when I returned. I hope you all did, too. There's a lot of work to be done.