I have had, for as long as I can remember, a pacifist view on life.

I accepted the need for self-defense, but to me there was nothing that was so important that it justified violence on my part. One of my life long heroes has been Martin Luther King. Someone who felt so strongly about his beliefs that he was willing to sacrifice everything for them. In light of that, who was I to say that there was any cause for which I should resort to violence? What is my life compared to anyone else’s life? I’m just one individual who is no more or less important than any other person.

I grew up in a democracy, and was raised with the belief that in America we stood for justice and freedom. Our ancestors fought and died for these things, and through their suffering and work they achieved peace. They created a country where all people could be free and equal. Sure there was injustice, but I always saw that injustice as something that was (at lease eventually) opposed: Senator Welch brought an end to McCarthyism with his plaintive question “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” LBJ signed civil rights legislation that worked to achieve equality for all people.

From this I learned that although injustices occur, they can be overcome through the political or legal system.

But then something changed.

I’m not sure whether it happened gradually or suddenly, but I realized that there are things that worth fighting for: Freedom. Justice. Democracy.

Possibly this change stemmed from the strife I have seen in this country over war. I felt that the war in Afghanistan was justified, but the war in Iraq was not. I never consciously thought about why I felt this way, but I suppose I’ve been mulling over it in the back of my mind.

I really looked at American history. Maybe there was no injustice when and where I was, but it was out there, and has been out there all along.

It seemed to me that these ideals I was raised to believe belonged to all Americans were under attack, or never existed in the first place.

Then I realized that someone has to fight for these things, and what if no one else wants to do it? I’ve been content up to now to accept that injustice was something that happened elsewhere, but that no longer seems true.

“We have to give up some rights if we want to be safe.” This idea astounds me, and I absolutely cannot comprehend it. Those rights are the things that make us safe.

Those rights are what make us American.

Those rights are what I have grown up believing in. Yet we are just willing to throw them away for some illusory sense of security? In this country we have a constitutional right to: Free speech. Freedom of Religion. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms. The Right to be Secure Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures.

If these things are not worth defending, then what is?

Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t changed completely. I’m still unwilling to see violence as the answer to all or even most problems, but I’ve begun to worry that perhaps I, like countless before me, will stand by and do nothing when the rights of those around me are violated.

And I don’t want to be that person.

This post is for Lenny and Dee, who I wish were around to talk about this with me. They are the ones who showed me that you have to be willing to listen if you want to understand what the other side is saying, and if you don’t try to understand what the other side is saying, you’ll never be able to reach an agreement.