Michael


 * A place to stop and think**

As more socially aware young people, we should be aware of our responsibility to the spreading of peace, and recognize that in order for peace to become a reality, every person in the world should be a contributer to it, and not simply neutral to the concept.

There was once a story about a woman in Tibet who wished to build a wall across the pathway of her village to protect from wild animals. She was told that it would be impossible, that one woman by herself could never build anything of worth. But she ignored them and on her way to the well to collect water, she would drop one rock onto an imaginary line. Sometimes the children of the village would run by, and knock the stones out of the way as she dropped them. But she continued to drop the stones onto where her idea of the wall would be. And gradually, the other women of the village began to notice her work, and they would each drop a stone, embarassed by their children's behavior. And in the span of one month, a wall had been formed, a head taller than any of the men.

The point of this is that a project is moved by the idea of one person, and that one person can motivate many, to create something that people always felt was impossible.




 * A High School and Elementary School Collaboration**

As a step towards creating a more enlightened and peaceful community here at CAC, the two international relations classes undertook a project with the elementary students in 3rd grade. We visited their class multiple times, and taught them about the Hiroshima bombing, while they shared with us the very personal story of someone who was affected by the bombing. Sadako, the story of the young Japanese girl who attempted to break free of her fate by making 1000 paper cranes. I heard this story when I was in elementary school. Although it didn't stick in my memory particularly, I think that its important for children to understand the severe consequences of war, and how the world can be injust. In a just world, those who deserved to live, would live; such as Sadako, who only wanted to be a P.E. teacher when she grew up. If the world had been just, then she would have finished the paper cranes, and the gods would have listened to her. I feel that it is important for children to realize the potential consequences of their actions. Especially this younger generation of children, who grow up with violent computer games. Even though I didn't grow up with these games, I often recieved the impression that I could hit my friend on the shoulder, and it wouldn't hurt him. Society today immunizes young children to morality as well as empathy. The thing that shocked me the most about the whole bombing was seeing the picture of the bomber crew in one of the high school presentations. All of the air crew looked completely happy, carefree, you couldn't help wondering if they were actually aware of what they were doing, or if they thought it was just a routine bombing run. The actual bomber however, must have had to known the consequences of his action, and yet, he proudly named his airplane after his mother. If I had had an airplane of the first atomic bomb ever dropped, purposefully, on innocent citizens, I would be ashamed of that privilige. So obviously, I don't think America was justified at all in their dropping of the bomb on Japan's citizens. Although obviously from the American point of view, which weighed millions of Japanese citizen casualties against the possible loss of one airman, it was fully justified. This is an example of the kind of thing we need to learn from.





Another thing to consider, is hypocrisy, and how much we practice it. I say practice because no one's really perfected the art of hypocrisy. Even in the most hardbitten and cynical people of the world, there exists a conscience, a voice in everyone's mind that judges what is right and what is wrong. Because of the conveniences in our lives, we seek to silence that voice, to make it stop reminding us about our morals, about our values. It can be argued that morality is individually based, and that each of us should be free to form our own values. But a very valid counterargument is the one which i would like to present for your consideration. How many people, from figures in positions of power, to the people that we see all around us everyday, actually live according to their moral code? If your conscience, whatever it may be, tells you to do something, then why ignore it? If everyone listened to themselves for once, we'd be a lot closer to world peace.



A jug fills drop by drop. [|Buddha]

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. [|Buddha]

"Inside Sonny's Mind." 30 Sept. 2007 <[|http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/3323/givinggap0wf.gif>.]

"Blognonymous." 30 Sept. 2007 <[|http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2007/05/21/mn_spending.jpg>.]

"Index of /." __N/A__. 30 Sept. 2007 <[|http://www.mypitchers.com/Global%20military%20spending%202005.jpg>.]

"After the Troubles." __The Daily Telegraph__. 30 Sept. 2007 <[|http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5437501,00.jpg>.]

"Your View." __Stars and Stripes__. 30 Sept. 2007 <[|http://www.stripes.com/05/nov05/yv1113/yv1113e.jpg>.]