 |
| Make that "men and women refuse to fight" |
Why won’t you join the military, son?
‘Fraid of getting killed? No, sir,
I said, ‘fraid if I joined I’d kill
Somebody, and that’d be wrong.
No, you got it wrong, son. You’re
Not committing murder. You’re
Defending yourself when you kill
Somebody who’s out to kill you.
Why would he want to kill me
If I clearly didn’t want to kill him?
You’d be carrying a gun, son. Rest
Assured he’d want to kill you. But
I wouldn’t be carrying a gun. I’d
Be no threat to him, like a medic.
Then join and be a medic; you
Wouldn’t be killing anybody.
Can’t do that either, sir. Medics
Ultimately help send soldiers
Back to kill. Couldn’t do that,
Sir. Sure sounds to me like you’re
Afraid of getting killed in combat.
Like I said earlier, I’m afraid of
Killing in combat, or helping others
To kill in combat. Driving a truck?
Nope, that’s helping in the killing.
Clerking in the office? Nope that’s
Helping in the killing. Breaking codes
To save our men? I think you know
What I’d say. Where’d you get such
Crazy ideas anyway? In church.
Jesus said not to return evil for evil.
Vengeance is mine, said the Lord.
You see what they did to Jesus?
Not directly, sir, but I read about the
Crucifixion. You want them to do
That to you? No, sir, not at all.
You want them to do that to your
Brother? No, sir. To your mother?
No, sir, that wouldn’t be right.
But I don’t think it’s necessary to
Kill anybody. Look at the First
World War, killed millions, didn’t
They? Yes. Didn’t have to. Huh?
Ever hear of the Christmas Truce
Of 1914? Yes, where the Germans
And the French sang Christmas
Carols on Christmas Eve and
Played football on No Man’s Land
On Christmas Day—no shots,
No shells for better than a whole
Day? Yes, but the war started right
Up the next day. Didn’t have to.
What if they agreed to have a
Christmas Truce for the whole
Twelve Days of Christmas? By
Epiphany they would have realized
They could put off the war altogether
And return to their wives and families
In safety and there would have been no
Millions killed. Well, young man,
That sounds all fine and good but
If you didn’t resume the war we’d
Have to shoot enough of you until
You did start shooting again.
You’re right, sir. Pacifists accept
They’re likely to be killed in a war.
But you couldn’t kill us all. Either you’d
Get sick of your killing, or others
Would stop you long before you
Got to the millions.
c. J.S.Manista, 2017
