On of the signs of how truly evil humanity is in war.  It is easy to dehumanize another human being and take their life, believing that some cause is truly righteous enough to take a father/brother/sister/mother away from their family forever. 

I'm generally an optimist and I still believe that that is the best way to approach life, however I think it is important to look at the world through what it is.

One of my friends gave me an illustration to show why we seem to have war.  There is one five-year-old child with a  lollipop and one child without.  The child without knows what it is like to be without whereas the child with the candy doesn't seem to understand this envy.   Everything is about the haves and the have nots.  It's easy to think that peace is easily obtainable if you live in an upper middle-class neighborhood where no one is truly 'in want.'  But greed is still a central human emotion.

If we could just come to understand that every human life is as valuable as the next then maybe there could be an end to war. If we were willing to give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves (not just in terms of material gain, but also when it comes to being emotionally fortunate, or intellectually fortunate.) Treat others with love and respect. This even means sacrifice to some extent. (Take the coat off of your back and everything.)  If we all went forward with this attitude of bringing everyone else above the needs of ourselves, things like war wouldn't happen. 

Unfortunately, war is never going to stop. Whether it is with bows and arrows, in the trenches, or even in the business office, war will continue. Greed will continue and we will continue to act on those animalistic tendencies that make us believe that our comfort and survival is the only things that matter in life. (And what a sad life that is)

-LTG

Last night I had a dream that I was debating this other team.  I was the only experienced one on my team and it was weird because I had two or three other people on my team (same with my opposition.) Anyway we were going to run a solar energy case but I couldn't seem to get my stuff in order and I couldn't tell the difference between my solvency and my inherency cards. I couldn't find my plan text at all. I even offered to let the other team find my plan text (which would give them an unfair advantage. Our judge was no help either. She didn't know anything about debate and was whining about the amount of time we were taking up (which I guess she had the right to.) I asked her paradigm and if speed-reading was alright and she gave some lay-judge answer.  When I started my 1AC she leaned over me and started talking with this other adult in the room about how rude I was and I couldn't even read my cards. In the end I just walked out of the room and quit. Then I think I woke up....

Anyway, I think I find myself being really nervous this summer. I think it involves the fact that this summer is different than previous ones where I usually avoid contact with other human beings besides facebook and such and end up just reading the day away. Now I'm being forced to interact with other people.... and it's not my favorite thing in the summer.   I also feel this apprehension about college coming and am kind of freaking out about it.  I hope I get the opportunity to take the SAT and retake the ACT before it's too late.  I think the dream was in some way dealing with this uncomfortable and nervous feelings I've been dealing with... Just in debate format.

-LTG