It was in Vietnam, my grandfather was in the military and fought for the South-alongside with the help of the American military, and yet he was still caught by the North Vietnamese Cong. People being almost tortured to death was still not enough for the world who can’t seem to listen to others opinion. I understand that one cannot solve worldly peace overnight no matter how great their story is, but one should be able to know that “between 2001 and 2010, there were more than 7,000 US military fatalities and an estimated 150,000 civilians were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan”(A look at the numbers. . .) , yet till this day there are still raids in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

I am a American citizen, but my mother is not, she left Vietnam with my dad (who is an America Citizen) to make sure that I would grow up in a safe and better environment. Therefore leaving her entire family of 12 brothers and sisters and her parents behind. The Vietnam war affecting my family greatly, but no one sees it as a negative outcome because it has brought us a new opportunity in a foreign land. When I ask my grandmother the question “would you do it all over again, even with the experiences that our family has suffered?”, and always that answer has been “no”. My grandmother often tells me the same thing, “it was a harsh environment that we lived in, with your grandfather gone at labor forces and me having to sustain a roof over your father, aunts and uncles head”.  She often described the labor camps as grim and so erased by any enjoyment of life, that death could have been better. With such a foul and sour smell the minute you walk into the labor camps, you could smell all the men in a beat up black shirts and pants while they were delivering cow manure. 

Every few months you are able to visit your family if you are lucky enough, and everytime you could only bring a small plate of food. My grandmother world grasp onto my grandfather's arm, giving him a look to let him know that she had snuck money into one of the food items she brought. When my family immigrated, they had nothing, but a language barrier, as no one could afford to take english classes in Vietnam. The war had brought my family into debt. The amount of funds that are put into things like nuclear weapons are unnecessary compared to what they could have been used for. Over “$1 trillion Amount that could be saved over 10 years by implementing the Sustainable Defense Task Force’s recommended spending cuts.”(A look at the numbers. . .) , I understand that the military is very important, but I also understand that there are lots of unnecessary money that is being used that could go towards things that could better us as a nation so we could support ourselves. For example, things like creating jobs to decrease unemployment rates, waging peace not only mean military wise or worldly wise but in could also mean economically. For example, poverty rates, if America had the same peacefulness has Canada, “Over 2.7 million additional jobs could be created while reducing state and federal government expenditures. The improved state of peacefulness would have a positive economic effect of nearly $360 billion per year.” ((A look at the numbers. . .) 

I am a first generation in my family, because of the debts my parents couldn't afford schooling, my mother never made it past 7th grade and my dad is a highschool dropout. My mom before she came to America has had to work multiple jobs a day to be able to send her sisters and brothers to school, she sacrificed herself during the war to try and earn money. She often looked anorexic, as she could have possibly barely eaten anything for days at a time, sometimes she would hear a constant ringing in her ear as she was only 13 dealing with 4 jobs a day, sleeping a max of three hours. The outcome of my family was all because of the war,  “I don't ask for worldly peace, I understand the world will always have some sort of problem because it is just the nature of life, but why must there be violence included when we have the freedom to talk?” my mother asked irritably. She questions the thought of war and why it is needed, why nuclear weapons are designed and why innocent people must be killed. I have been raised with the same mind set, as I grow up and begin to mature more, she often starts to tell me more of the stories of her life as a child, and I realized that I have been so lucky to be born in such a state where I don't live in poverty. 

War ripped my family apart, I only so often see my mother's side family every 4-5 years, we have a peace alliance but I also feel as if no one is inspired by it, “spanning from the Spanish Civil War , World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and CURRENT Iraq wars” (Making Peace The Goal). Peace can be established internationally and domestically, but it seems that no matter where you go, violence will always follow. From my dad’s point of view he has had it easier than my mom, he had more support growing up, but when the war hit, he also knew it was over, that nothing would be the same anymore, He described it as a moment of “dead silence and soon after just tears that weren't able to be kept back from flowing”.

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”– Robert F Kennedy, so far the Peace Alliance has helped secured over 110,000,000 in funding for peace. Violence has caused millions of deaths yearly, costing at almost 500 billion dollars yearly. If that is not considered a big deal then consider that in 2010, ¼ of women has had experience with some sort of violence, whether is was sexually, physically, or both. Also in 2010 “ 6 million children witness domestic violence” (Statistics On Violence And Peace), resulting in 460 billion dollars annually. I have not been personally affected and I am extremely grateful for that, but I know people who have been. The majority of them are too afraid to step out and talk about it because they think it would be an embarrassment, as they think that peace isn't the answer, whether its peace within themselves or with the world, because our society has overshadowed something that needs to be talked about. 

I have witnessed women being in an abusive relationship, but staying for the sake of their children. I have witnessed too many things to know that even with the amount funded from the Peace Alliance, it isn't enough to make someone speak out. Even when I have not been directly affected by a matter of violence, still I'm lost and confused as to where I should speak out, and how? The questions of  “will anyone listen?”, “will I be able to make a change?”, or “does the world even care?” tend to pop up in my mind. (Based off of Orwell's writing)

Works Cited

“Dream of a Nation.” Edited by Creative Slice, Dream of a Nation Waging Peace Comments, 2019, dreamofanation.org/solutions/waging-peace/.

Alliance, Peace. “Statistics on Violence & Peace.” The Peace Alliance, 2018, peacealliance.org/tools-education/statistics-on-violence/.