Several scenes in this film hit me very hard. One that hasn't been mentioned was when the welder stood up on the battle field and said that he had one final request before he died--that he wanted to piss standing up--and then they could shoot him as much as they wanted. I cried very hard. The way he sings goodbye to the world; it just really brings out how inhumane and barbaric and murderous war really is.
I'm so glad that there is less war today than there was then, but there is still a hell of a lot. I feel I have to make a serious effort to get rid of it. I can't let what is wrong with others be wrong with myself. I can't be satisfied with a gradual decrease in something so terrible as war. It's like what William Lloyd Garrison said about slavery:
"I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Park-Street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this moment to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity.... I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead."
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