W.A.P. - War And Peace

I’m sitting in a window seat, 10,000 feet and climbing over the California desert, above the clouds. It still amazes me that humans were able to invent flight and integrate air travel into society the way we have. One day I fully plan on looking down on Earth from a different perspective, somewhere in space, somewhere that’s always been above me. In the third grade for a class wax-museum I was Sally Ride and wore a full astronaut space suit and had a 5 minute bio memorized. I also went to space camp twice and have already entered a Blue Origin lottery to win a seat on a commercial space flight, so it’s going to happen one way or another. It’s just about the same price as an American wedding these days… 

Albert Einstein is a gentleman who needs no introduction, but I will recommend his collection of essays The World As I See it. His reputation as one of the most brilliant minds in human history precedes him, and much of the wisdom he gathered outside of the realm of academia he articulates in this text. He was a man of strong values and conviction, he stayed above the noise of politics and loved to contemplate and pursues a more just, truthful and peaceful world. He was very convicted in his stance on war, in which he discusses disarmament in depth. I certainly don’t have any up close and personal experience with war, but I do live in the United States where we have had a number of wars since the establishment of the USA. My Grandad was a WWII veteran, he received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star medal for his service, he fought in the notable Battle of the Bulge. He taught me a lot about war. We’d spend Saturday afternoons in his yard in Atlanta, sitting just the two of us and he’d recount the years he spent in Europe on the war front as he hand rolled cigars. Most stories were quite morbid, but he was telling the pure truth of what it is like to experience war as a solider. One winter it was so cold in France on the battle front that an uncountable number of men fell to or near death from frostbite, and he and the other able bodied American soliders had to stack their friends’ bodies to create a barrier of protection in case of a German invasion. It’s painful and impossible to empathize with a story that brutal. My imagination nor my mind want to wonder what it would be like to be in that position. I’m grateful to have been spared that fate thus far and I certainly have much respect and love for my Grandad, he lived to be 92. 

I remember when President George W. Bush made the call to enter the war on terror. I was attending Wednesday youth group at my church, all the teenagers and adults just burst into tears, hugging each other. It was one of the most solemn nights I’ve ever seen, especially in a place that’s usually filled with worship and praise. If I was ever in a position to be the President of the United States, I’d have a hard time commanding the military. I just can’t wrap my head around the certain death and destruction, things that are opposite of peace. Punishment, revenge, and greed are ugly and evil things that always motivate wars. Those appear to be the primary three reasons people typically lean on to incite the call to war. Can’t we all just bake a cake of smiles and rainbows like the random chick says in Mean Girls? Working at Amazon and in tech, I just see SO MUCH POTENTIAL for how we can use our brilliant human minds and use our big hearts to do great things, positive things. Negative things are depressing. 

“The individual can accomplish little [through compulsory military service], nor can one wish to see the best among us devoted to the destruction through the machinery behind which stand the three great powers of stupidity, fear and greed.” – Albert Einstein  

“As long as armies exist, any serious quarrel will lead to war… May the conscience and the common sense of the peoples be awakened, so that we may reach a new stage in life of nations, where people will look back on war as an incomprehensible aberration of their forefathers!” – Albert Einstein 

War… What is it good for? - Song by Edwin Starr