My Life and Times Part V

Later, I added another friend to my repertoire! He was very much the short term utilitarian, doing everything for immediate gain, and often procrastinating until the last minute to do things. His influence may have perhaps waived my dualistic view, but nothing very pronounced happened excepting possibly my increased happiness, but again, nothing overly notable.

By this time, I find it important to address that I had progressed out of the third grade and into the fifth. As my age had progressed, so had I; and I acquired yet one more friend. This time, he shared my interests in gaming and recreation, and made for a great bus partner.

Having been born before the turn of the century, I was old enough to kind of know what was happening during the September eleventh attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York. This also provides a great tangent for me to springboard off of, but I’ll not elaborate on the opportunistic practices of the late-night paper-writer (really it’s only 8, and I’m jumping around, so I’m almost done. Please don’t think too badly of me.). 9-11, as it has come to be more casually known, was a terrible day, regardless of standing, and my personal proximity to the event only made the impact that much greater. It got me thinking about many things. At this point, though I was not as independent as I now am, and was very keen on my parents’ thoughts, so I was not extremely original, but I did have perspective, and that does count for something (at least if you’re a good BSer). The attacks were egregious, but I feared our country’s retaliation would be too strong, as it usually is. Was it right to go to war over this? Few people disagreed with President Bush’s “War on Terror,” but already my family and I had the notion that this was too vague a term. This got me thinking about violence and what was really right. It was around then that I made the decision to become nonviolent (at least for a few years). I had seen what violence could bring, and so I decided to look into more peaceful means of resistance. This is when I incidentally came across Gandhi for a school project. His message of nonviolence immediately struck me (pardon the pun), and I was entranced.