http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/

The essay written by Sam Hamill in my opinion was very refreshing, and a exciting eye opener. Sometimes I feel like I have never been introduced to the complete potential of poetry. But on the other hand I will admit that I have never given poetry a fair shake.

There is a lot to think about in this reading. There are quite a few ideas that are presented to the reader, one might take offense or not. Sometimes I think people need to be offended to wake up. Many times in my own life I have been offended, then gone home and reflected on the situation. Either found out I was in the wrong or perhaps someone else saw something that I did not. We need people to call us on our wrongs. We also need to become accountable for our actions. This is part of becoming a productive member of society.

We have created a society where if you don’t like something you just walk away and find something else, not everyone has this option. Usually poor societies have to deal with there problems, but apparently when you sit on top of the food chain these issues are passed to someone else to deal with, and we move on our merry way.

I think the media has a lot to do with our misinformation. The fact that only savory info gets reported, and when important issues do arise we just turn the other cheek and be glad that its not happening in our neighborhood. Most of the time the only way people get excited is when problems are happening in the own backyard. Its is just easier that way right!, Its just easier to not deal with things that don’t concern us. Society has gotten lazy or maybe just less compassionate of the needs of others.

I have had to personally call the cops on a friend when he was hitting his wife. The sad part is for the moments leading to my call I was wondering if it was the right thing to do. I think back to my decision and am glad I made the one I did, but why was there hesitation. Was calling the cops not the obvious thing to do.

The author is right, we are controlled by fear. When I was a kid I remember watching my parents argue. My natural instinct was that this was not right. But we are taught to stay out of other peoples business, but at what point does someone else’s become my problem, or my business. These are the questions that we need to ask ourselves.

I am not happy with what is happening in the world, mostly with the U.S’s continuing need to war. Especially when at home we have more that enough problems to deal with. If this was the sixties we would be rioting in the streets. At what point did it all change. When did we lose our voice.