In Defense of Peace
By: Ame-san
You say that idealists are foolish; I admit that I am of such a fool, a complete idiot with too much hope to spare. What's my reason? You ask. Why should I have a reason? Isn't that raw emotion of mine good enough? Can't you live at least once without an explanation to things that you'll never understand? Can you? I can and I believe. I'm not afraid to be weak; I'm not afraid to acknowledge the kindness hidden beneath everyone, and I'm certainly not afraid to live in peace. It might take a great amount of courage to die, but it takes more than just courage to live.
Wars are necessary, you say. How so? Is it because it quenches your thirst for blood and satisfies your desire for adrenaline? What's next then? What's left after you are completely satisfied? Suffering? So suffering is what you are after then? Really? So you really want to suffer? I guess peace is just too plain and dull for you. Blood, death, human corpses pile on top of each other, waiting, rotting, until the vultures come and feast upon them. You love that sick, macabre smell of human flesh, don't you? Heck, you love death! Maybe I should remind you that death is merely the beginning of rebirth. Are you ready to live again? To suffer again? To kill again? To smell that sickening aroma of congealed blood again? Are you ready to hear those desperate shrieks of the dying again? Are you? I surely am not.
But war is in our blood, you say, and nothing will change that. So you give up before you even try. Coward! Weakling! Why not do something that's actually meaningful? You say that you can't, and you don't know how. Learn! For heaven's sake! If you can learn to fight, to massacre, then surely you can learn to live! Not just to live but learn to live in peace! It might take time for you to get use to peace, for no progress is established in one day. Have a little faith in mankind, I beg of you!
This war is just, you argue. What's your cause then? Freedom? Righteousness? What! Do you really think that making these ideals your excuses to fight could justify the deaths of millions of people? Don't you think human lives are a little more valuable than these words? It is true that I too wish for freedom, but is it really necessary to acquire it through violence and destruction? Does it matter to you if this freedom is tainted by blood? Would you still enjoy it in the same manner that you would in a peace way? Think before you act, please. Think about the consequences before you grab a weapon. Think.
What about self-defense? You ask. What should one do when one is under attack by others? I do have an answer to that, but I know for sure that you would hate me for saying this. Be a loser. Lose that battle. Compromise. I'm sure that your enemy feels the same. They are humans too, and they don't want to die. No one does. If you would just let go of your pride and put your guns on the ground first, there wouldn't be a reason left to fight. Do not ever instigate a reason for battle, please. Give peace a chance, if you would.
You despise pacifists like me; you hate my ideals; you can't stand my weakness. I am not trying to convince you, for I am merely trying to defend my belief. You don't have to accept them, no one has to agree with them. In fact I encourage you to stand up for your own beliefs, but I challenge you to come up with a better idea.
Do you have the guts to accept this challenge?