I just got back from watching The Last Samurai. Something about it really struck me. Maybe there was a lot that struck me, because I find myself feeling like I need do to something. I remember someone saying about war movies, that arguably every war movie, every good war movie, is actually an antiwar movie. It's a little scary how many laugh and cheer when people get quite literally decimated by bullets and blades. Sure, it is entertainment, but war movies aren't happy for a reason; though these scenes are staged like a carefully choreographed dance, the things they scenes portray do happen. Too often in fact. War is ugly. War is hell. Pity and fear the souls that take joy and pride in killing, enemy or otherwise. Yet there are so many out there, hungry for revenge or a twisted brand of "justice," that war is not considered a last alternative, but a preferred action.

I can't help but think that on the way to becoming citizens of this world, we've left so many valuable things behind. In a sense, we've fallen backward trying to jump ahead. It could be that we all need a re-educatoin. An education about life. I can't say we're passing the tests we're taking. There are also those who are too quick to look for something better, only to reject the things that meant so much to them in the first place. Why must we be so blind in these times?

So things are better left unsaid. Some things should not be rationalized away. Pay attention. Our consciousness is drowning in apathy and indifference. When did we all become so damn passive?