the aggressive pacifist

is that an oxymoron? i don't really know. but it works.

by nature, i'm not aggressive. if someone punches me, i'm more likely to just stare at them than punch back. i just don't have enough aggression in me to bruise someone like that. i can barely insult someone because then i feel guilty and disgusted at myself. i don't let people get to me like that; i just don't allow myself to let someone hurt me. i'm good at blocking things out.

but i am aggressive in the respect that i believe in standing up for what i believe in. i can throw some pretty mean words when it comes to thoughts i don't like. i can write a pretty killer editorial. and i believe in protesting, in fighting the system. in this nature i'm a fighter, just because it's not my body that's in question-- it's my mind.

when it comes to war i am a strong believer in pacifism. i still don't understand how so many young people could realize the sheer insanity that is war, and yet those middle-aged men in office can't see past the block between their eyes. why can't they see what we see? these men and women have gone to the most established universities the world has to offer, they've climbed their way to the top (note, i say climbed, and not worked), and yet they can't see something so simple that we so easily understand. war is the worst man-made terror.

maybe it's that we understand death more completely in our youth, that it's not age that helps us understand our mortality but innocence. we know that there is no winner in war, that the life of an innocent is not sacrificed, but taken. god help me if i ever die as a sacrifice for my country. i'm not willing to die for my country, it's not my duty. people put so much stock in that patriotic ideal. but if everyone died for their country, where would the country be?

the bottom line is that war kills. life is for no one's taking. and the people killed die as products of someone else's hate. the children in power couldn't play nice, so now they've decided to resolve it in a man-to-man conflict, a conflict in which neither will participate. they'll call the shots from home, maybe visit military bases every so often. but no leader should ever ask his people to do something he himself is not willing to do; you create the war, you fight in it as well.

i am an aggressive pacifist; i'll be fighting against your war.