War. It is by far man's greatest mistake. I watch movies like "Saving Private Ryan" or "No Man's Land" (Serbia and Bosnia) or epics like "Band of Brothers" and while most watch them and think we are heroes or the "other" side is the enemy, what I believe we often forget is that to them we are the enemy, no matter who we or they are. There is no finality to where friends and enemies begin and end when there is war. It is the tragic misshaping of our faults and fears. No one wants to die so brutal a death. No one. My heart aches when I think of the suffering one must endure during and after war. Learning to take a life and truly believing your life is more valuable than theirs. And while survival is by far the greatest catalyst behind any succession or oppression, it is still heart-wrenching because the cost in getting there is far too high. Imagine the courage it must take for any human being to go to war. Imagine the fear or the loss. Because regardless of where you stand or what you're fighting for, the person beside you may be someone you love or know and at some point you will watch them die. You will see the life abruptly leave their body and the person you knew or the person you've loved or perhaps, protected, is now merely a shell. A name. A singular moment.
I cannot advocate war nor can I advocate submission and perhaps that will always be my internal battle. I believe people should stand up for what they believe in and no one should be told they cannot think for themselves. BUT - while on paper that sounds perfect, you must think carefully of what it is someone believes. Do they value life? Do they value the right to speak your mind? What is acceptable to say out loud, what is not. We go through life every day and hear tales of some country going to war or being in the middle of an uprising. We watch countries so fraught with untruths and greed, the heroes and villains are often skewed. Sadly, I believe, we - the US - are within those ranks. We are becomig no different than living under a Dictatorship or Fascist government because look at the staggering faltering of our nation. Look at how difficult it is for people to live their dreams or have the "consumer obsessions" that are sold to us as the "American Ideal". There is no more. We have beautiful things we stand for, of that I cannot deny. But what about the way we watch our own lose their footings not because of poor decisions but because there is no foundation anymore. People don't say hello to their neighbors, everyone is having trust issues, few believe their employers give a shit about them, families feel totally displaced. I see young parents reaching for a life and believing in love and hope and yet they have no direction in offering that to their children or themselves.
I see people in this life so incredibly lost. They cannot handle life's challenges and their internal strength is nonexistent. I'm sure if a study was done, the amount of Americans on prescribed psychotics whether for anxiety or depression would be staggering. I cannot imagine throwing someone into war in the middle of all of that and yet -
I cannot praise any leader at this point because if you look around the world, it seems every leader is failing at offering their people quality living. I don't mean fancy cars or beautiful things, I mean quality of actual living. A standard where people believe in themselves, believe in their journey, believe that they can be educated or travel or succeed. In the early 1990's, I think there was this idea that the lower class were the ones truly lost in society. But now nothing is what it seems. I think everyone is lost. I believe most everyone has become consumed with hate or anger or confusion or anxiety. The lack of personal security is truly overwhelming.
I don't write this to depress anyone but moreso to maybe show you something from a different perspective. Please don't be so quick to assume who the enemy is. Unfortunately, human beings are capable of deplorable things. More unfortunate is how easily they give in to that. I am someone who has endured my own things in life. Things I don't need to share with the world but in truth, any one of them could have steered me down a crazy path. A path that could have been destructive or hurtful and somehow I listened to that voice inside. That voice we ALL have inside that reminds us to stop being so friggin victimized. We are not vitctims. Horrible things have happened in life - to everyone. Imagine if you lived in Rwanda during a genocide and you witnessed these militia going into safe havens with women and children and these same men yielding machetes - raping and cutting these fragile human beings into pieces and doing it with a smile because their insides were so rotten they couldn't stop. Imagine if you lived during World War II and in order to live or save your family you had to fight on the side of Hitler. There is no real way to see the good or bad too clearly.
