Day 2

Dear Journal,

For the captains, sergeants, and officers here, war is everything. It’s life, death, and everything they care about. It’s about ego, being better than the rest, being able to defeat your opponent. War is such a paradox; on one hand, you’re fighting for what’s right, but on the other, how can killing be right?

But what if I don’t think like everybody else? Will I get punished? I’ve never felt like this before… all I know is that this feeling of hatred, doesn’t feel right to me.

Well, maybe it’s just me, but do people have that little respect for their peers? I mean, doesn’t anybody care? I don’t understand; if you spend a long time with some one in the army, you fought for your country with them, gave up your life for being in the army, shouldn’t that be enough to earn a decent funeral where people actually give you the respect of a war soldier? I think so. I don’t understand the lack of compassion for others that I see around me. It’s like their robots; they’re not real people. They’ve been trained not to love. I feel bad for Sergeant Mendoza. I’m sure he misses his son and can’t express any emotion, because he wants to be strong. I wish he know that it’s okay to cry and feel sad, he’s human.

I really wonder if Juan and Esteban are telling me the truth when we were discussing the issue of whether or not the army notifies the child’s parents after the child dies. I hope that the parents do get notified. I mean, I would hate to be that parent, praying everyday for years that my child is okay, that he would return home soon, when in real life, he actually died 8 months ago. I would hate to be that person…

God save me!

Uno Ramírez

Picture from: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200708/r171214_643322.jpg