6.29.07

daily drawing.

we just finished watching "letters from iwo jima", which is the follow-up movie to "flags of our fathers", both by clint eastwood. the stories basically chronicle the american invasion of iwo jima from both sides. seeing these films has only further moved me to the conviction that war is wrong.

beyond all the patriotism and ideas of honor and dignity, the people fighting are sons, husbands, fathers, daughters, mothers, wives, sisters, brothers... regular people like you or me. the "enemy" is people that are just like us... sons and daughters, parts of someone's family.

"great" men from all across the ages fought for power and control and still do. but the great men rarely do the fighting themselves. and so we have someone's son shooting at someone else's son for the sake of revenge, or power or political and economic advantage.

i don't mean to demean the bravery of people that choose to go fight for their country, but i do feel that we are all somewhat deceived about what we are really fighting for.

i also know that this is a controversial topic and that many wise people fall on all sides of it. i just want to say for myself, my heart cannot support war in any way, shape or form. i believe in peace and want to be a part of bringing universal shalom and peace and flourishing to this earth, even if i can only touch the little community in which i live.

in that spirit... shalom to all of you,
sam