Holly:

I had forgotten what a philisopher you are! I am very glad to have you back!

And you have sailed into some deep water with these war and peace questions. I would like to hear more of your ponderings. Has your marriage to an army man (an army nurse no less!) changed your thinking about this subject?

I have asked the same questions myself, as have most thoughtful people at one time or another. The questions are all the more potent in this age of doublespeak when we create the most horrible weapons in the history of mankind and call them "Peacemakers."

A recent movie that, for me, added even more layers to this puzzle is Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. It was one of the finest films I've seen in years, a western with all depths of an Iliad, a real Homer on the Range. [Sorry!] The film argues, among other things, that we can't fight evil without becoming evil. This had a special resonnance for me because its violence was an uncomfortably acurate metaphor for the political back-stabbing and infighting I have encountered lately in the workplace.

What, then, are we to do? Real answers will almost certainly involve some untidy compromises. Our situation as moral beings encased and blinded in shells of mud, and hardwired with desires that propell us against each other, requires that we remain flexible to new situations. Moderation in all things. As much compassion as we can muster.

Questions like this can never be answered finally but are still worth pursuing because each new answer creates new questions that lead us to an ever-deeper understanding of who we are. Many of our recent voice card debates (Desert Storm, Rodney King, Do Bastard's Prosper?) come together in this larger issue. And, as always, I wonder: what do YOU guys think?