We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have - arm yourselves!
Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who “Tooth and Claw”
I claimed I was a pacifist for so long, but I don’t know if the word suits me anymore. I mean, I still fight for peace and will always fight for it, no matter how many people tell me that a war is ‘just.’ My thing is, what would I do and what would I expect others to do if they were being attacked or their house was being broken into? I lived under the banner of ‘personal pacifist’ for a while, but I, along with everyone else, can’t just be a personal anything; we are examples to others around us. I am a white, straight, cis, abled , male… What do I know about constant threats of violence? Pacifism is one of the worthiest goals, but I don’t even know what I would do if I was thrown into a place with constant violence… How can I tell someone who doesn’t feel like they have a choice that what they are doing is wrong? Maybe I am succumbing to the same arguments that I defended pacifism against… I don’t know… But what I do know is that my desire for peace does not have to stop there. Maybe I will find some word to describe what I am… MaybeI don’t need a word and I will just fight against violence whenever I see it…
“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it” -Eleanor Roosevelt
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one” -John Lennon
Undergrad in Coastal Environmental Science, Atheist, Humanist, environmentalist, feminist, science enthusiast, altruist, nonviolent, somewhere between liberal and radical
