War

War
It seems so common place now. It's been going on for hundreds of years and yet in all that time we've never learned how bad it is. What is this inside us that drives us to kill one another. To take disagreements to the physical level. I don't care what you're arguing about or what your beliefs are, it doesn't mean someone else has to die because they don't agree with you. Yes, you may get angry at them, you may not like what they choose to do or say, but why do we think that violence is the answer. "They did it first.", will defend it often. How does that make it right? Does it work when we are children?

"Why did you hit your sister?" demands the mother of her son.

"She hit me first." Does the parent just shrug their shoulders? Do they let that go, "Oh, well as long as you had a reason." No, at least mine never did. And if they did let it go on, when would it end. The girl hits her brother because he made her mad. He hits her back. Mom intervenes, finds out that the daughter started it. Then what, she hits her daughter to show her that it's not right? That would never work. It'd never end, families would be hitting each other forever if violence were the answer.

Yet as adults, what do we do when someone makes us angry, or believes differently then us? We hit them. Harder then when we were children sure but what's our reason for doing it? "I didn't like what they said."

And what happens because of it? Well the person, or country we hit hits back. Why do they do it? "You started it." Why does this work now when we're adults but it didn't work when we were children. What's changed? Do we somehow understand now that two wrongs do make a right. That if we just smack them back, harder then they did to us of course, they'll stop?

Of course as adults, we do more then hit. We have wars. That way one person can send a bunch of innocent people to hit the one person who made them mad, or the one who started it. Well maybe if it worked that way. But it doesn't. You have a group of innocent on one side fighting a group of innocent on the other side. The people who were offended don't get hurt. They sit back and watch. If they don't think they're hitting back hard enough they send in more people. Maybe violence is the answer if we can send in only the people who are offended.

I think a punching match between Bush and Hussein might've done some good. Maybe Bush would've gotten all his aggression out on one person and left the country of them alone. Most likely he would've been beaten and sent people into the country anyway.

I know that people defend war with other reasons. It's not just one person who's been made mad, or who's been hit. Yes that's true. But how did it all start? Would the leaders have followers to violence if we had just as powerful leaders of peace? I don't think so. Of course peace is the more difficult path to take. It's difficult not to get angry when someone insults you, or your beliefs, or even worse hits you. It can be done though, if we're strong enough to try. I wish that the world could be that strong. I hope that I'll see it in my lifetime, but it's just a hope. I don't actually believe it'll happen. Everyday I am encouraged though. Everyday I hear about somebody new doing something to help someone they don't know. Or mabye they do know them and they just need a helping hand.

If every person could do that for every other person what a world it would be.