War is a segment of the Human experience not the entirety of it
Proponents of war have usually never served in it.
How about you have an opinion of your own, oh trollish one, rather than a drive-by spewing of useless aphorisms about the NEED for war?
As far as I am concerned, it is the knee-jerk reactions of people who have not served, who have not sacrificed and feel perfectly willing to send others sons and daughters off to war who bleat the loudest about freedom and the trivialization of war.
I served in the military. I earned the right to have my opinion about war. Have you? Not that I give a damn one way or the other. I am simply warning you, I am not the man to be trifled with here. This arena is one where I am not interested in your “fragility” around this subject.
As for Israel and other injustices around the world, I am equally displeased with their existence and since I have no control over the military, all I can do is voice my displeasure and move on. Nor do I make it a point of discussing the futility of the American war effort on every front. Given our propensity for “perpetual warfare” I might never do anything else.
By God, I would rather dive headfirst into a swimming pool filled with double-edged razor blades than have a conversation with a witless coward who can’t be bothered to make an account, write an article and support an opinion on a regular basis.
It’s easy to bleat about someone else taking that risk and “comment” like anyone should give a fuck about what a random bleating account which could be little more than something created to sway the simple-minded, the knee-jerking, war-mongering idiots to think their way of life is under assault.
Your way of life IS under assault… by stupidity and cupidity. By an inability to see anything that isn’t warfare. An inability to see the world changing all around you; the air is unfit to breathe, the seas are becoming devoid of life, food is becoming harder to grow, populations are continuing to explode, greed is destabilizing every nation which feels it’s entitled to infinite growth on a finite planet.
You are not fit to challenge my opinion about anything. You don’t even exist in a state significant enough to matter. Anyone who reads my work knows where I stand on war, peace, humanity and my belief in what we could do if we were willing to do something besides murder each other from a distance.
I say to you in the most congenial manner possible: Good day.
Don’t forget to close the door on your way out. Your words have no value here. They add nothing useful. They espouse no great truths, they reveal nothing but your lack of commitment to your so-called ideals.
They are the worst of comments, they inflame but not inform.
You are not even as good as this banner which embeds a variety of messages in a clever and interesting fashion.
Don’t come back. I will be less charitable next time. This goes for anyone else who wants to remind me of my “trivialization” of Human life. Because wanting to protect life, all life on Earth, isn’t trivial.
It should be the thing we are all dedicated toward with every fiber of our beings. It should be what we wake for, work for, strive for, struggle for and make a reality, every day. Our every effort should be improving someone’s life in addition to our own.
Be it by making better, more humane policies, by changing the means by which people can gain access to meaningful healthcare, by helping people to return to their lives after ecological (or man-made) catastrophes, by creating new and innovative ways for people to find meaning, education, and opportunity in their lives, no matter how simple or complex their lives may be.
To those of us gifted beyond the wildest dreams of avarice, it should be incumbent upon you most of all to recognize the struggle and relieve it, not exacerbate it. The pursuit of greed makes the world poorer in literally every conceivable way.
Could we forget the Alamo? Could we forget Pearl Harbor? Could we forget 9/11? They were terrible events which have earned a place in history. But they should not take ROOT in our hearts. Because when they do that, they can be manipulated, misused and weaponized by unscrupulous men. Forget the rage which is preyed upon by those who would keep you spending everything for a war no longer being fought.
Remember your humanity. Remember the suffering. Remember Flint, Michigan, who three years later still doesn’t have clean water, if you must take up a cause. Remember Tamir Rice, a child deprived of his life because of hatred disguised as a police officer. Remember all the innocent lives lost in every military action which takes place on this planet and lives whittled away in every corporate dysfunction pretending to be economic gain.
Put your energies toward thinking about the Greater Good. Preparing for the day where we inspire people not by repeating the names and dates of places where people died, but by the events where Humanity realized how best to go forward and LIVE.
“Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.” ~Barbara Kingsolver
