Why me? Why not? Jake Raynor
“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.” A quote by Martin Luther King Jr. Why are we still fighting wars, when we are supposed to be setting aside our differences?
After so many years of fighting wars, you would think we would have gotten smart enough to realize that fighting is not the answer? Look back at some of the most famous wars in history like the WW II, WW I, and even the Revolutionary war. How did each of these wars end? They ended with a treaty that both sides could agree upon. Now, I understand that they didn’t come to that agreement at the beginning, and thus resorted to violence, but the problem is that they didn’t agree on a solution not that they couldn’t. They instead decided to kill one another, ending many peoples’ lives needlessly. Here’s an example of something that might have happened during the revolutionary war.
‘A man is running through the forest, panting heavily, his arms pumping up and down, and adrenaline flowing through his body. He is a Loyalist, and is running for his life. The troop he was assigned to was attacked, and he just barely escaped. The gunshots ended a few minutes a go, but the cheers did not sound familiar, and the man was too scared to see who had won, so he just kept running. After a little while, he stops and hides in a bush, catching his breath. He had left his gun at the camp, and he had no food. It is just a matter of time before either he starves to death or is killed by the colonists. A nearby town is 6 miles away, but the militia is between him and the town. Thoughts were racing inside the man’s head, like “What about my family? Can I make it back to town without the colonists attacking me? Will I ever see my friend Joe?” As these thoughts are racing though his head, thoughts of his wife, his daughter, of days long past of playing in the stream with Joe, and even the fond memories of eating dinner with his wife and daughter, the time Joe had brought food to celebrate the daughter’s birth. All these thoughts motivated the man, urging him to take the chance and head to the town.
With these thoughts motivating him, he turns around and starts running, listening to every sound, every crunch of a twig, looking around him like a mad man. After a while of doing this the man hears something. He stops and listens. It’s the sounds of the militia’s camp. “So the militia did win.” He thought. A tear crept out of his eye at the thought of his dead comrades. He quickly wiped away the tear with his sleeve, and sat down at the base of a tree. Worry and exhaustion finally caused the man to sleep, with his face in his hands to block out the light.
A short while later he is roughly woken up by a colonist militia scout. The scout says “come with me”. The man, in his confused state, complies with the man. After a few minutes of walking the man is pushed out onto the dirt road leading to town, with a militia camp in the middle of it. By now the man is wide awake and alert. He is pushed on to the ground and men come to tie up his hands and feet. Then the man is forcefully pulled up by his hair. A man looks into his face and says “Loyalist, do you have any wishes you want us to do before you die?”
The man says “yes. I want someone to tell my wife and child I love them, my last name is Hearst. Also please tell Joe Leaderman that I want him to look after my family. They are in the village the road comes from.”
Right then a sob could be heard from among the soldiers. The voice of the scout said “Please forgive me Earl. I’ll watch over your family.” When Earl looked to where the voice was coming from, he saw Joe, with his hands covering his face. And that was the last thing Earl saw.’
