Imagine you have six children, and they all have an argument, a really visceral dispute. Their beliefs are firm, unyielding, and they are equally split, three-three. Or maybe four-two.
Would you stand by and let them kill each other off until one of the groups declares themselves the winner?
That’s what we do now. We call it war, and we glorify it. We romanticize it. We make movies about it.
Each year on this day, when I put my flag outside to honor my father’s commitment to this country when he served in a world war, I can’t stop the tears of anger. War is a mindless, stupid way to settle an argument!! All you have to do is kill off all the people who believe the other side of the argument, and then call yourself the winner. The only thing it proves is that you had more guns / swords / rocks / bombs / whatever than the other side. But now you get to make all the decisions. Now people have to follow your laws, your decisions, your way. You have ‘won.’
A colossally stupid, mindless, animal-like way to end an argument.
When a bull moose battles another for the harem, we call it nature. The animal kingdom. When a bird of paradise out-sings and out-dances another for a mate and drives the other male off, we watch with fascination. Nature is beautiful! All those colors! The beautiful birdsong! The graceful dance! He has won! Happily ever after.
Not so much for the one driven off.
That’s nature. The strongest buffalo gets the females. The most aggressive horse gets all the mares. The people with the most bombs get the fertile land next door, the raw materials under the ground, the emptied city built by people whose religion the aggressor can’t tolerate.
Have we not evolved at all? Humans, in one form or other, have been on this planet for millions of years. Are we still just animals?
Didn’t we learn better in kindergarten? There are plenty of crayons for everyone; don’t take your neighbor’s color. Use a different color. Share together. Wait for him to finish. There are all kinds of solutions, if a solution is really what you want.
But if you’re unwilling to consider any solution besides your own, we are nothing but animals.
The earth has enough resources for all of us, just like the kindergarten classroom has enough colored crayons for everyone. But unlike a rutting animal, we have to be willing to consider other options.
Maybe if we didn’t write beautiful epic poetry about war…and make stirring, impressive movies about it…. Maybe if everyone else in the little classroom (read: the world) banded together and chastised the bully, explained things, made known the behavior they’re willing to accept…..
Today is the day to remember and thank those who went to places we wouldn’t want to go, and did things that we would never want to do, learned things we wouldn’t want to learn — and they did it for us. You and me. We benefit from their sacrifices and hardships, and sometimes, their loss. My father, a Veteran of WWII and the first in his family born in the U.S., loved his country deeply and had only one wish for it: to see war made illegal.
With that fervent wish in my heart, and with no politics in mind, I remember and honor all those who served their country, or who are still out there serving. I sincerely hope the need for your service soon becomes obsolete.