I just watched Letters from Iwo Jima for the first time tonight. If you haven't watched it, you should consider doing so. This is a story based upon the Japanese perspective of the war. It definitely made me stop and think about our current situation. I wanted to share my thoughts because my heart is aching for all the men and women who have died in war all around the world.
We all grow up with the ideologies of our country of how we are somehow superior over other countries. It doesn't just happen here but I'm sure in every country people are taught this. Its not necessarily our fault that we believe other's are our enemy, but the fault of our governments who teach us this, and being taught this makes it easier for citizens to lay their lives on the line for the good of the "country". Take for example the current wars the U.S. is fighting now. We have lost thousands of lives, injured thousands more, and for what? Our brave soldiers go over seas and DIE for us, even without a just cause, because it is the right thing to do (or so we have been taught).
Now I don't care what people might think of me after saying this but I'm going to say it anyways. Have you ever thought about the other country we are fighting? Have you thought about the mother in the middle east who will never see her son again, or the father who just was killed that will never see his new baby? We have these same type of losses here and so does any other country who goes to war.
It makes me sad to listen to our politicians speak about war in almost a casual way, like killing people -ours or of the other country - is no big deal. It makes me sad when I hear others say demeaning things about another culture or person because they are different. It makes me sad that others don't realize that all around the world we are all the same! We come into the world the same way, we deal with similar problems in our life, and we all leave this world through death. There is no denying these facts. We are all connected on this earth, and yet we kill each other over things like money, land and/or oil.
Now I believe that most people don't think war is a good thing, but I also believe people are very naive. I know I was and still am in a lot of ways. I was only 15 when 9/11 happened. Just like so many people I believed that we needed to go teach those "terrorists" a lesson! I didn't know the difference between Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, or any of those other countries that they were always talking about on the news, all I knew was that we were "defending our country". I still don't know a lot, but I do know that we used 9/11 to not only to avenge our innocent citizens but to start more than just one war. Like so many I thought that all those people in the middle east where terrorists because that's what our government was telling us, but they aren't all that way, yet how many of their innocent citizens are being killed everyday in their own country because we invaded them? How many of them have been living scared because of foreigners invaded their country. How would we feel if some other country did that to us, even if they said they were trying to "help" us, wouldn't we still feel scare of them and start to HATE them too?
War is not a good thing and it seems to me that we rush into so quickly but yet it takes forever to get out, which we never fully do. I wish someone could give me one good reason to kill thousands of poor innocent people? These men and women of all countries who are just trying to do the right thing, the things they have been taught. I wish someone could tell me how this person who seems to be so similar to me, except maybe a different color or religion, is such a threat or evil? I am sad for our world. It has become a hateful, greed-filled place. I feel more and more each day that it is wrong to think the things I do, to be the person I want to be, and to hope for good things to happen in the world. Is it so wrong to for someone to sincerely hope for world peace?
No comments:
Post a Comment