Give Peace A Chance

Give peace a chance! War is just terrorism on a bigger budget! Support the troops... end the war! War is not the answer! Violence is not strength, compassion is not weakness...

I went to a war protest in 2007, at the beginning of my junior year of college. American and foreign troops were in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and dying at alarming rates. I understood the motivation behind sending troops to these countries. September 11th. Evil empires. Cruel dictators. Weapons of mass destruction. But is ridding the world of evil worth it at the price of thousands of young men and women's lives? I'm not sure. I think our government jumped feet first into a war that wasn't completely thought through. I think there were possible ulterior motives, like oil, forming new alliances, ousting enemies, spreading democracy, etc. I think there could have been other ways to exact revenge on those murderers who killed our innocent civilians on September 11th.


I think peace deserves a chance. I don't think we should act like the policemen of Earth, because to other countries, we simply look like bullies. I think there are peaceful ways to achieve your end goal - humanitarian missions, trade sanctions, peace talks.

I hate reading and hearing about my peers dying.


"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

So I followed the First Amendment, and embraced my right to free speech and peaceful protest. I marched through Washington DC, carrying signs and chanting. "Drop Bush, not bombs!" "End the war now!" "We're making enemies faster than we can kill them!" "Kill one person, it's murder. Kill thousands, it's foreign policy."


I rushed up on the lawn of the Capitol, and sat down with my signs and my fellow peaceful protesters. I don't think we made any changes. I don't think any soldiers came home because I made some signs and sat outside of the Capitol. But I felt good protesting something I didn't agree with and I felt like a good American citizen by exercising my rights.


Participate in a protest - Cross that one off the list!