[Peace-discuss] RE: Shame

[Karen Medina]

I've been thinking ... and now I share some of my thoughts.

My high school history teacher once told my class that we should take a student out behind the equipment shed and beat him up. That would make the student study more. None of us respected this teacher, but what if we had? Would we have done this to one of our classmates. 

Troops are taught to listen to their commanding officer, and many of the officers do demand respect for all the troops including the women. But all it takes is one officer who thinks that women, or blacks, or gays should not be respected, and suddenly you have a group of people who will follow his/her explicit or implicit orders. 

Yes, I think Bambi, if he had gone into active service, would have respected women and required this of the people that he might have led.

-karen medina
By the way, my history teacher had been in the military. But my science teacher had also been in the military. It was less obvious that my science teacher had been in the service -- he rarely spoke of it. My science teacher was one of the best people I have ever met. I thought my science teacher was a pacifist, and I still think that he was. He was respected by all the students and teachers as well, and he always spoke respectfully. BTW, several AWARE members actively served in the military.