When you get the chance you should watch the video on this post. It is a dark humor type of video and when I watch it I am taken back to my junior year of high school . I was in Mr. Millers U.S. history class in Lorain Ohio. I cant remember exactly how the discussion was started but I remember Mr. Miller telling one of the students that soldiers in war believe that they are fighting for just causes on each side of the war.
I grew up and joined the U.S. Army and I got to say Mr. Miller was right. I never once thought that I was involved in something wrong. I am not sure if it was patriotism, or duty but I always felt like the United States was the just party.
Look at that two videos in one post. I love that song and the lyrics are pretty interesting. They speak to how many nations use the blinders of patriotism to get citizens to go to war. It doesn’t mention one particular nation, I assume that is because this is done by all nations throughout time. St. Augustine struggled with the concept of just war and came up with philosophy surrounding making war as just as possible. Many argue that this just war theory or philosophy is where modern day war crimes originated.
You know that you have devolved as a species when you are coming up with the most humane way to wage war. To go to war a nation must convince its citizens that war is necessary. Conscription is used but then there is desertion to deal with and traitors. The best way is to convince someone that they are fighting evil or bad guys.
The gun lobby promotes gun ownership as self defense because of “bad guys” with guns. Since you are a good guy you should buy a gun register the gun and when someone breaks into your house shot the bad guy with that gun. In Louisville Kentucky men with guns kicked in the door to Kenneth Walkers house. Kenneth Walker had bought and registered a gun for self defense he thought he was a good guy. Kenneth the good guy with the gun shot at the bad guys with guns. In effort to defend his girlfriend. You can read an article about Kenneths actions here .
Kenneth didn’t stop the bad guys with guns, they killed his girlfriend with their guns and shot Kenneth. Kenneth’s girlfriend was Breonna Taylor and the bad guys who shot and killed her were; Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove. You can read about them here. These guys thought they were good guys.
In the video there is a scene where everyone is pointing guns at everyone else and someone asks a woman who the bad guys are and she says something like you all seem terrible to me.
Shooting someone is bad full stop. That is a great rule to live by. Shooting someone is wrong. The police officers were wrong and they murdered Breonna Taylor. Honestly Kenneth was also wrong. In hindsight maybe if Kenneth were to not have fired at the police they would have only kicked in the door and arrested the wrong couple (yeah the police kicked in the wrong door it was the wrong address!). We will never know though because Kenneth thought he was shooting bad guys with guns and police thought they were shooting a bad guy with a gun (even though they did kick in the door to this guys house, breached his inner sanctum in a violent manner).
The bad guys with guns who murdered Breonna Taylor and tried to murder Kenneth Walker, were not sent to prison. It breaks the heart truly that Breonna is dead and there is no justice. The jury and broken justice system that could not find a fault with the bad guys is a problem. I think maybe a big part of the problem is that the justice system itself is a “bad guy’ with a gun. Anytime you must use violence to enforce justice I would argue that you are far from policing by consent. There is no one that would want a police officer to kick in there door to their home ever and shot their significant other.
I think maybe that is what makes someone a good or bad guy. Inflicting ones will on someone without consent. Sadly throughout the world this is happening everyday by millions of people.
Breaking the cycle is painful but possible I hope and it has to start with someone. It doesn’t look like it will start with those in authority anytime soon so I will try to have it start with me. I will work towards respect and empathy for others in all my actions and when I get the chance (which I should in a democracy) I will vote for authority that has respect and empathy for others and not in one that declares “good guys and bad guys”. It is this good versus evil reductive nonsense that has and continues to hold our species back for forever. There are no good guys or bad guys when everyone is holding a gun period.
A good guy finds a way to help others that doesn’t involve shooting them or kicking in the door their home and shooting them.
The Corrigan Encore 