My Two Cents on War and Peace

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi    (Something to ponder)

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a political person at all. I don't watch the news, read the paper, nothing. This is all just ideas running through my head. Let me also say I hate, loath, and despise arguing with people over politics. So please, take this as me trying to work through thoughts in my head. I'm trying to be open minded and still respectful of everyone.

I have friends and family that have served in various branches of the government protecting us all at one time or another, and I appreciate EVERYTHING they do. I fully admit I don't have the courage to join up, go to some other country and live in dirt and dust while trying to kill people who have done us wrong.  I don't have the courage and I could never do it anyway. I kill spiders and scorpions and that's where it ends for me. I'm not even good at that.

On a friends Facebook post I saw that someone had written "Death should never be celebrated but, at best, mourned as a necessary evil." That I understand. That line stood out to me since that was what I had been thinking about today. Murder is murder, plain and simple, right? Whether we are righting a wrong, getting justice or revenge, it still boils down to the same thing in the end, so morally I wasn't sure what to think of the Osama news and us throwing parties.

We were all told he's the bad guy and that the bad guy should be killed. I just don't like the idea of celebrating it the way we are.  I'm trying to be fair though, and I'm thinking that if someone hurt a family member of mine I would probably want to see them pay in some way or another. I don't even like admitting that I feel that way, but I do, yet I don't think I could ever kill someone and then celebrate my taking of another persons life.  I would still feel bad about it. I might be able to beat them up really good and then celebrate though...I honestly don't know, I'm just saying there are different levels of right and wrong and for me murder plus parties is on the wrong list. Let it be known I am in no way putting down the person who got him, I'm just trying to compare. I know it's his job to do this exact thing and in that respect, he should be proud. He did exactly what he was supposed to for his country.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy living in the good old US of A and I appreciate everything we have here, but the one thing my travels have taught me is that (at least where I've been, which is all mostly peaceful places) people are all basically the same. We are all scared. We all have hopes and dreams. We all make mistakes and act like idiots sometimes. We are, essentially, all human. But...with that aside, I have mixed thoughts for other reasons.

First, I never know what to believe, period. The news is more opinion than fact and even more often fiction than anything else. How many times have we seen news stories contradict each other? I'm pretty sure that happens every day. I never, ever, ever know what to think of our government. Is it all lies? I mean it certainly seems that way sometimes. We know for a fact a lot of things they've told us were bologna, so when can we ever really trust anyone to give us the plain and simple truth? And why should we trust that they will? This all boils down to my "no on actually knows anything" theory about basically every big thing that we all get riled up over. To me it's all like rumors. Until I hear it with my own ears from that very person, why should I believe anything else? It might be interesting, but I don't necessarily want to bet the bank on it.

Second, back to me being anti-politics. I don't like arguing with people over what is or what isn't, when none of us actually know because we're not the ones pulling the strings. I tend to fall somewhere in the middle of the idea where there should be no war and additionally, there should be no peace. Nothing can be entire because it would then be perfect and perfect doesn't exist. What I do lean towards is everybody (and I do mean everybody) minding their own business. By that I mean that each country should keep to themselves and not worry about everyone else, unless of course they genuinely need help. Who's to say our way is the right way? For us, maybe it is. Heck, maybe it's not! We get things wrong all the time. All. The. Time. Yet we like to make everyone think the way we do, do the things the way we do, believe the way we do. I know that's an impossible thought, but a thought none the less. I would like to think money and power won't control the world one day as well, but there goes me and my thinking again.

My big issue is this: When you really consider it, all politics do are make us pick sides against each other. Let me repeat that...pick sides against each other. "I'm right, you're wrong, no I'm not, yes you are, blah blah blah." Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we allow ourselves to waste time arguing with our friends and family over these things? Why do we have to be right all the time? United States of America, correct? Not Divided-because-we-argue-about-everything States of America.

I'm still struggling with the idea of us dancing in the streets after we've murdered someone. I feel like we might be asking for trouble and quite frankly, haven't we had enough? I certainly don't want any more mothers losing their sons and daughters to some new battle. I don't want us going to some other country and killing a bunch of kind, innocent people that just so happen to live there. I think of it like this: How many of us here in the USA are all just living our lives, period? And if some other country came and tried to take us down many, many of us good and innocent bystanders would probably die. It's the same in other countries as well. We have to be fair about that at least.

I still, and probably always will, struggle with the idea of lies and misinformation. I have a hard time believing anything the government tells us anymore. A few years back I watched a 9/11 documentary which made me question everything about 9/11. Everything. Maybe it was movie magic, but it made me second guess what I had been told. I won't go into that because I'll be here all night, but it made me wonder about a heck of a lot of things.  Now,  I'm not trying to freak everyone out, but I'm an equal opportunity believer. By that I mean that I like to give everything a serious amount of consideration while trying to push my emotions aside so that I think clearly rather than react emotionally. This doesn't always work, but I try as much as I can.

Now that I've written a small novel and rambled a little bit, I must admit that I feel a little better. So thank you for putting up with me. I'll probably never talk about politics again since it's really not my thing, but just needed to throw this out there in the mix of everything everyone else is saying and deal with it in the one way I really know how, which is writing.

I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that all of you have a good night and happy dreams. I mostly hope that at some point our world finds a way of working with, rather than against, each other.