Kiona-Benton High School
Benton City, Washington
War and Peace Essay
Teacher:Dea Podhajsky
Lindsey Schaeffer
11th Grade
War and Peace
I agree with the quote "The reason life is so cruel is because everyone has such good reasons." The point I think this quote is making is that every individual has his or her own reasons and opinions, and chances are that those reasons and opinions are going to be in conflict with another individuals. Both of these people are right in their own ways, so who is to say that one of them is wrong? Everyone tries so hard to get ahead and be right, but really their always going to be struggling for other people's support, and in reality, a person can never persuade every person to agree with their own point of view, maybe a few but never everyone. Does anyone do something they think is stupid, and then support their "stupid" decision? No. They regret it
A young woman goes to an abortion clinic. She's pregnant by her own father and chooses not to have the child. By many, her decision is IMMORAL. By another many, she is supported by. Her reasons for choosing an abortion are her own, and to her they are legitimate reasons for her decision. Another person would say that she's a coward to not have the child, and a murderer for killing the unborn. Both of the opinions have good reasons, yet they contradict each other. There is absolutely nothing that the young woman can do about it. The only thing that she can do is do what she knows is right for her to do. This makes life cruel because no matter what, a random person con-abortion will judge this young woman for her decision. She will have to live with this her whole life.
Another quote that I agree with is "The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become," written by Alfred Herbster. The point of this quote is that it's a tragedy when any one person doesn't live up to their potential.
There is probably somebody somewhere in the world that easily could have been another Bill Gates or another Albert Einstein. The reason they don't live up to their potential is because they don't try. They don't take the time to look and see what they could really be, they just accept the role that they think they play in the world, and don't ever try to really do something with them selves. These types of people don't take life seriously.
Another type of person could be put down by society to the point that they let other people tell them what they can and cannot be. Albert Einstein wasn't liked in high school. He failed a lot and they almost classified him as mentally slow. If he would have believed them, and decided that he couldn't do anything like they thought, there is no way he would have accomplished all that he accomplished.
I have a friend who gets mostly A's and B's. He is really intelligent and knows that he can pull out with a C in any class with no studying at all. About a month ago my friend and a few of his friends took an intelligence test. When they got the results back, my friend had the highest score by about 500 points. The rest of the guys, who are all straight A students, all had around the same scores. It is obvious that my friend is smarter than his friends. My friend does not live up to what he could really be. I find that very sad.
If people knew what they could really be, then why wouldn't they try? A person has to be a very strong willed, motivated person to actually physically and mentally live up to their full potential. There are probably only a few percentages of people that do live up to their potential. Teachers, parents, friends and counselors all tell kids that they can be anything that they want to be. It's really sad how many of those young people don't believe it when they hear it. They go through life satisfied with average when they could maybe be outstanding if they tried. It might be because they grew up with people that told them that they weren't good enough. Either way it's a waste of good potential and good people for anyone to not live up to what they could be.
“ To preserve peace, we need weapons of smaller and men of larger caliber.” If all men/women were more open-minded and better people all around the world, I know that there would be fewer wars and fewer conflicts.
The reason we have so many conflicts is because when shallow people disagree, they refuse to try and see the person in conflicts point of view. They don't care. They are shallow minded-people who don't care about any other person's opinion, other than their own. They don't see any other way of solving the conflict other that war or fighting, and that is the way their mind works. War and fighting is the last way people should solve their conflicts. People should be able to talk things out, and agree to disagree. Instead of trying to find a solution, these people thrive on fighting, and are determined to show everyone that they are right, when really like in the first quote; everyone is right in different ways for different reasons. All these people want to do is fight.
If Adolf Hitler could have seen from the point of view of anyone of the innocent people that he killed, maybe he would have realized that his way of doing things was wrong. Maybe if he would have gotten to know one person before he killed them, his perception of things might have changed. He only wanted to see one type of person. The type of person that he thought was perfect. The others he didn't care about and he didn't respect. He didn't stop too see that the person underneath the "imperfection" was probably a great person, or that the person had a whole lot in common with him. He just didn't care.
I think that if people really want peace in the world, then they should put some real effort into it by just being a good person everyday. They should live their lives being nice to a person for no good reason instead of being mean to a person for no good reason. There is not a point to living mad. There is a point to living nicely, and having consideration for every other person that he/she comes in contact with. Things everywhere would be much more peaceful if everyone were to live their life like this.