Graffiti Wall Project

War and peace are not the easiest subjects for me to consider. I feel as if I do not have enough experience and knowledge with literal, physical war of more than one country to put my two sense in. I do not have any close family members involved in the military, and by the time that I was born my father had already retired from the military. I am not a person who is anti war, because I believe that war often happens for a reason, the intentions for starting a war are often understandable and happen under the conflict of beliefs; however, war often becomes corrupted.

The thing about peace is, “It can not be achieved through violence, it can only be achieved through understanding.” (Walph Waldo Emerson) Like a pond without ripples, peace is state of harmony and tranquility. It is a balance and accepting of one’s self and with others where respect is given and received.

My graffiti wall is made up of three canvases that have been sprayed with red and black paint. I chose these colors because I saw them often during research of resistance graffiti. The canvases display the quote: “War is not soldiers against soldiers…It is a clash of cultures… War is people against people.” Part of this quote was said by our guest, Sean Pelfry while recalling on his own experiences in the military and out on the front lines. When Sean said these words, they really stuck with me. War is a clash of cultures. This thought ties my idea of war and peace to the class and what we have discussed because we have talked a lot about how important our cultures are to us. Culture is what makes a person and when one culture clashes with another, there can be utter chaos. When chaos occurs it affects everyone involved.

When I began thinking of putting these two quotes together, I felt that I could really connect many of the units and texts that we have worked on it class to them. When the day is over, no matter how many soldiers have died, that many people have died. It is citizens against citizens and throughout the texts that we read, if there was some kind of battle, it wasn’t weapons against weapons, weapons do not pull their own triggers, people do. Cultures clash and when people strongly believe something they will go out of there way to get what they want.  Our class had a big focus on discussing what was involved in culture. Our culture is our belief system, our traditions, our family, the way we have been raised and who we are. Our culture is something that we fight for. I saw the culture battle being fought in Kampung Boy, when the main character’s father did not want him to ruin his future, and in Sold, when Lakshimi first refused comply with her master’s requests. I also saw this in Revolution is Not a Dinner Party, when Ling cried about many things, but not for Chairman Mao’s death, and in A Long Way Gone, when Ishmael Beah joined forces to attack the RUFF, the people who killed his family. While many of these battles did not become a literal war, these characters were fighting a cultural war of their own.