 here's
an old Indian saying that you can't know someone unless
you walk a mile in his or her moccasins. Which means 2 things:
1. It's nonsense to claim that if you were Charlie, you wouldn't do
what Charlie did. You would have done something different.
2. It's also nonsense to claim that you know what you would do under
a set of circumstances that you are not now experiencing or feeling.
And that brings up the question of whether or not we should have dropped
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Let me see if I can take you back 50+ years. If you were alive at the
time, maybe you'll refeel what you felt then. If you hadn't been born yet,
there's no way you could ever know what it was like. You see, you weren't
wearing our moccasins. But nevertheless, try to feel what we were feeling
at the time.
Virtually every American family had at least one member in military
service. Generally a son, daughter, father, or husband. There were many
families who had one member killed in action. Some families had several
members perish in the service of their country. Many families had someone
blinded, paralyzed, or crippled for life. There were families who had someone
missing in action never to return home. There were families with a son,
daughter, father, or husband who was being mistreated as a prisoner of
war. In short, there was hardly a house or apartment in the country where
tears, heartache, anguish, and despair had not taken up residence.
And there was no end in sight.
Now, given all that, take off your shoes, slip into our moccasins, and
tell me what you would have done at the time — drop the bombs and end the
war? Or not drop the bombs and continue the war?
Think about it. |
