Truth of War
Paragraph 1: The Mad Dash
Chase Pierson
“BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP…BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP”,“smack!” I turn my
alarm clock off. Lying in bed I realize how much heavy lifting I did yesterday
at work, by the burn and ache in my muscles. I get up and walk over to my
mirror; there are dark lines under my eyes that show my lack of sleep over the
past two days. With a squeak I turn on my faucet and immediately start to splash
water on my face. Its 6:00 AM and there is frost on my windows, there is a low
rumble as the heater turns on. As I throw my coat on, I securely fasten my name
and identification pin to my shirt and walk out the door. “James Maddison” I say
outloud, “Pretty good name”
I walk down to the curb, stop and look up. It is a beautiful day, almost
majestic. The birds are chirping, and the familiar smell of a freshly fallen
rain grazes my nose. The time is 6:23 AM now 6:24 to be exact, and for once I
don’t think about my job. I glance up and down the street, hoping for a bus but
nothing. 10, 20, 30 minutes pass and no bus. Cursing, I walk back toward my
house. As I walk, I think; “Work is 17 miles away, my shift starts at 9:15 that
gives me…2 hours and 22 minutes to get there”. I began to run, yelling at my
neighbor, “Take my flack!” He grabs it and yells, “Bye.”
I continue to run, not stopping for anything. Running and jumping over
obstacles that would normally require me to go around. I few moments pass and I
come up to the train tracks. I hear a whistle, “WHOOT, WHOOT!” It’s the train, I
think; “If I don’t make it I will have to wait another 30 minutes” I sprint, not
thinking I jump clear over the tracks. My foot catches and I roll to a stop.
Realizing that I had not cleared all three tracks but only one, I jump up.
“WHOOT WHOOT!” I run and jump, narrowly missing the train. I brush myself off
and start to walk again. There is an eerie silence, nothing happening, almost as
if the world has stopped. I glance around, looking for any signs of movement.
Nothing, I continue on my way. As I start to run, I glance quickly behind me,
and jump when I see a man a mere 30ft behind me idling in his Model-T. Realizing
I had not heard his engine, I turn around and slowly walk towards him. He starts
to move, quickly accelerating, his wooden artillery wheels clucking on the road,
passing me in a plume of dust and exhaust. As he turns around the corner I
shout; “You bastard!” I check my time, 6:27. I continue to walk, and stop again,
not hearing the engine whirr away around the corner. I cautiously approach the
corner, stop, and then with one big leap I jump out into the clearing. “YAAAW”!
I yell. But nothing is there, the car is gone. Come to think of it everyone is
gone. It is not Sunday, but a Wednesday. And where are all of the boys? Not all
of them work at the plant, in fact most of them work for their parents at local
stores, but I don’t see any of them. I walk over to the city store. Hopping up
the steps, I open the door. A bell rings and a young girl I instantly recognize
as the owner’s daughter runs up to me. “What can I do for you mister”? She
asks. I quickly respond, “You seem a little young to be working in this store
don’t you think”? She looks at me funny, standing on her tippy toes and tilting
her head she says, “Ford, you know they are coming for you guys at the plant
next”. Confused I ask, “What do you mean”? She replies, “You don’t know”? “The
army is recruiting all abled bodied men for the war, that’s you!”
Paragraph
2: The Arrival
I arrive at the plant at 9:23, walk straight, and pass my card to sign in.
Standing up I walk through the door. Knocking down the military attendant on my
way, turning the corner I run right into the recruiting officer. I stop, turn
and walk pass him, to the entrance and out the back door. To my left there are
tall stairs; I climb them. Reaching the top in a few fluid steps, I sit down.
The strong smell of gas and coal coming out of a nearby smoke stack makes me
cough. I reach down and grab my shirt, pulling it over my face to cover up the
bad smell. The train is in the loading dock, and I notice the captain giving me
a nod as he pulls the whistle, “WHOOT, WHOOT”! The whistle echoes across the
work yard, “WHOOT-WHOOT-WHOOT-WHOOT-WHOOT-WHOOT”.
The whistle goes away just in time for the door below me to open. The recruiting
officer steps out and almost instinctively whips his head around looking
straight at me. “Boy!” he yells, “I suggest you come down here before I get up
there!” I don’t answer. ”Fine” he responds to my lack of movement or response.
Tucking his pants in his knee high boots, he pops the buckle on his scabbard,
handing it to the military attendant, and begins to climb. “Alright, I am coming
down.” I yell. It seems like an eternity before I finally reach the bottom of
the stairs. I stand up straight, tall. And look down on the now small looking
officer. Waiting for him to say something, I sit down, but right before I can,
he says, “You are required on the front to fight for your country. You have
three days to prepare.” And with that he turns around and goes back through the
door.
Paragraph 3: Deported
My three days pass so fast, too fast. Here I am 19 years old waiting at
the so familiar bus stop on the corner by my house. The morning is very cold.
The sun has yet to come out, and I can see my breath in the air. The grass is
covered in frozen dew and crunches under my footsteps. “BEEP!” a loud horn honks
behind me, startled I jump. A large green bus is behind me, confused I walk over
to it, grab my bag and step in. The bus is crowded with young men like me. I
recognize a few of them but not by name. As I sit down I notice that everyone on
the bus was male, there were no females. And we all were dressed up as if we
were going to a wedding. As the day goes on we occasionally stop to get a few
more men, or to refuel, and continue on our way. About 7 hours in I start to
notice some seagulls flying overhead, and the smell of fish. Straining to see
out of my window, I finally catch a glimpse of what all of the commotion is
about. Up ahead two large ships wait. Engines rumbling and a long line of men
are standing outside the dock. The bus stops and we get off, immediately we are
handed new clothing and told to change. The uniform that we were given is rough
and heavy. As I put it on I notice my body temperature starts to climb and I
start to sweat. As I pack up my old clothes we’re given helmets, and are told to
stand in line. The line crawls along until; finally, we are on board. At 11 past
2 we set off.
Paragraph 4: Arrival
Up ahead we can see the port, large ships are already docked and men
pouring out onto the dock. Small trucks wait, loading up the men for certain
death. As I look closer I can see small children waving, I wave back. Standing
up I walk over to the rail of the ship, abruptly I stop. Seeing a glimmer in the
crowd of people, I reach for a pair of binoculars sitting on the rail. “CRACK!”
the sound of a rifle going off cuts through the air, feeling a sudden pinch in
my chest I fall. As I look down I see blood coming through a small hole in my
coat. I hear screaming as things start to blur, a large group forms around me,
one last gasp of air. All is black.
THE END
James Maddison, Age 19. Was the first enrolled soldier to die in
a non-combat situation. Respectfully, the US military renamed the ship JMMS
(James Maddison Memorial Ship). The JMMS is now on display in Germany for all to
see.
The fighting force of the Khmer Rouge; Child
Soldiers
Chase Pierson
Child
soldiers were the Khmer Rouge’s main weapon in the Cambodian genocide. Imagine
being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, handed a gun, and told to
shoot your family or watch them be killed before you. This was the case for many
children ages 7-19 in the year 1975-1979 throughout Cambodia.
The
Khmer Rouge could be said to be the sole reason for the Cambodian genocide. They
used many forms of violence. Youk Chhang, among many other children, was forced
out of his home, dragged into the fields, and told to work. Those few children
that were given the gun were given the option; either fight for us and your
family survives or say no, watch us kill your family and still fight for
us.
The
majority of the children who took up the option to fight found that they were
able to follow the rules of the Khmer Rougemuch
more easily than those who said no. Among those who chose to fight, 85%
(estimate) of them followed the Khmer Rouge until the very end. However, the
majority of the children who said no and witnessed their family’s execution
found that they were able to run away and escape the Khmer Rouge and escape the
guilt.
Millions
of landmines were planted between the years 1975
and 1979, with the majority of those landmines being planted by children. The
reason for this was that no elderly/adult members of the Khmer
Rouge were willing or wanted to plant landmines. But because some of
these children were so willing to follow their leader’s, they children simply
volunteered for the job, planting as many as 20,000 landmines in one setting.
Most of those figures are estimates but truly show how much a leader that
forcefully acts upon a child can change a child's mindset and decisions.
Aki Ra, a
former child soldier, embarked upon a course that would change his life. He set
off as a lone soldier, clearing some 50,000 mines and unexploded ordnance,
according to his count. Many of which he planted himself.
Aki Ra was forced to be a child soldier, meaning he did not have the
options given to other children, he says that because of that choice, which he
was not given he has now chosen to come back and help rebuild Cambodia. Many
previous child soldiers have not been able to do this due to the amount of grief
they faced, not leaving the Khmer Rouge before.
‘A former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge described being forced to
kill innocent people, saying he still has nightmares about the past. “They armed
us,” he said. “If we hadn’t carried the weapons, we would have been shot.” “A
number of Khmer Rouge soldiers were children,” he said’.
‘Youk Chhang, director of
the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said at least 200 children between the
ages of 12 and 17 were forced to fight the Vietnamese. Around 20 girls were also
pressed into service, carrying food and supplies’.
Since
the end of the Cambodian genocide hundreds of children have come forth with
their stories. However only a few of those children have had those stories
published. This is unfortunate because, in order for us to not go back on our
previous mistakes we need to know the experiences of those who had made the
mistakes in the first place. “Children
were forced into slave labor, to plant land mines and kill their families. The
majority of the children had no choice, either that or watch your family get
killed”. - Youk Chhang
Starting
in 1975 going to 1979 hundreds of child soldiers were taken from their homes,
given weapons and told to kill. Those who do not participate were killed. Let
this be a reminder of our past. Children are still being taken from their home
and turned into child soldiers today. Law are/need to be made and need to be
enforced. No child should go through the events that these children have gone
through. One of these ‘laws’ is described “The recruitment and use of children as soldiers was not specifically
criminalized in national legislation. Recruitment of children as soldiers and
cadres had been very common in the Khmer Rouge period (1975 – 9), with evidence
of children as young as five being trained as cadres. 12 It was not known
whether the prosecutors’ office of the ECCC would seek to bring charges either
against former child soldiers or in relation to their recruitment”.
This
needs to be stopped.
Religion Project
The Crisk
A man, sitting on his knees
Praising a God he believes
To be the one to save his life
To help him through the stormy night
The trees rustle the wind blows
Yet the man is still alone
Praising a God he believes
That gives his family what they need
The night is still blistering cold
Yet he still praises the unknown
The presence above or below him
He does not know
He just prays that his family makes it home
And that they see how hard he tries to keep them safe,
When they are alone.
Praising a god that isn’t there?
I don’t care, I feel god is everywhere
In the street,
In the hood,
To the corner of my neighborhood.
Where is god when we die
Does he cry or turn his eye
These things we will never know
Unless we adopt a faith
So we can appreciate
The clean plate
We get on every date
There is only one creation that can do these things
And he is my God
My Jehovah King
By
Chase Pierson
SEMINAR REFLECTION
I really enjoyed exhibiting a
seminar. I felt that our discussion was very well rounded and really pulled
together all of the ideas we have learned during the religious project. The
overall view I felt from my peers was that both religious and non-religious
people have questions about their own beliefs as well as the beliefs of others.
Such as the creation story and the 1:100000000000000 chance that the perfect
combination of gases created life on the earth. I also feel/realize that
religion is a very sensitive subject and I think we did a very good job
considering and respecting other peoples prospective on
religion.
I felt that it was rather hard to
have a discussion with someone who is bias against religion. I felt that the
majority of the questions that were asked implied anti-religion or quickly went
to anti-religion soon thereafter due to lack of belief in the group. I really
appreciated the audience comment that: “Missionaries don’t force religion onto
the people they visit to help, but instead merely suggest and support the claim
that religion will help to give them a more fulfilling life”.
I am definitely more aware of my
peer’s beliefs, but they have not changed my beliefs in any way. I can relate to
the questions a lot of non-believers have for believers because I have them as
well, but I seem to find that no matter the answer I propose they still keep the
limited mind set. I don’t think I was necessarily ready for all of the questions
answered;’what function does religion serve in human life?’ or ‘How does
religion influence societal institutions?’ I did not write my pre-writ on those
questions so I ended up staying relatively neutral.
The issues discussed in the seminar
did not go as deep as I thought they would go. I feel like we stayed on the
light topics of why religion is bad and how religion has affected the world in a
bad way. However we never discussed the creation story or how inspirational the
bible scriptures can be. Be talked about missionaries spreading diseases in
South America, but the point that some of the most religious countries are in
South America, so obviously even if disease was spread the idea stuck. That idea
must have been pretty good if people still follow it even after hundreds of
thousands of people died. These ideas are hard for me to think of and I think if
I had more time to think on the questions I could have brought the seminar to a
much deeper level.
I do not necessarily feel that my
prospective on religion has changed. I still have my beliefs and they are
actually stronger than they were before this project because I now realize how
much I have to look forward to in afterlife and in my future. I am more aware of
other religions and the stereotypes that come with those religions, like Muslims
–Terrorists, and Jehovah Witnesses and Holidays. I am now more open,
understanding and respectful of other peoples beliefs and I hope to be able to
continue that in the future.
Chase
Pierson