Altruism

1994: The Buffalo Bills win their fourth consecutive super bowl, the Winter Olympics are held in Lellehammer, a solar eclipse is visible in North America, O.J. Simpson flees from police, Netscape browser is released. It's amazing. It's amazing how as we lived through our normal lives, as insignificant headlines rolled across our tv screens, nearly a million people died in a time period of only a hundred days.

We spend our lives wrapped up in our lives. We work to obtain knowledge only to find how ignorant we are. As we went to school, rooted for our favorite sports team, and ate our fancy dinners, men and women's skulls were being laid in order.

It seems like Rwanda would be the perfect example to prove how war is never just. Many people firmly believe against war in every circumstance and in supporting their argument, they use examples of past wars. They use examples of wars that people gradually believed we shouldn't have entered in the first place: Vietnam, now Iraq. However, I believe war is justified by a war we never entered.

America stood and watched countless deaths all because it had nothing to do with us. It had everything to do with us. People around America riot against war while promoting peace, but I can guarantee there will never be peace in a world that sees no reason to defend another nation. Peace will never be attained with a selfish attitude. We must see the world from the world's perspective, not America's. If hundreds of thousands of people are dieing it is our responsibility to be there, if a nation is trying to conquer another that values freedom and democracy it is our responsibility to be there, if a nation is suffering under a ruthless dictator and may possess weapons that threaten the world, it is our responsibility to be there. You see it doesn't matter if we benefit as a nation. What matters is that we benefit as a race.

People ask American soldiers why they will go to war that isn't even America's war to fight. It's because they know it is their fight; it is our fight. We must learn to fight for the good of all people. Again people will say: why should we try to solve the problems of other countries when we can't even solve our own? That I believe is one of the most pointless questions to ask because it proves nothing. Look at yourself, as an individual; we all have our issues but does that mean we can't help other people around us? Just because we're not a perfect country doesn't mean we shouldn't sacrifice and make an example for the rest of the world how a group of people should truly behave.

It's funny. People would say peace is the opposite of war. This isn't true. The opposite of peace is selfishness. To attain peace is to attain selflessness. And there will be many wars in the name of selflessness and on the way to peace.