Sam Hamill

The thing that I have to say first is holy cow. When I saw the length of the essay (eight pages is a lot when on summer vacation) I was not inspired to read at all. I was completely wrong for doing that. This essay was amazing, it gives voice to things that I’m sure a lot of people think but not all of them can say. It’s that idea about everything being referred to by its proper name, I think that’s one of the things that was stressed the most and that we all need to take into consideration. If we can find the words to say all that we feel and all that we wish to convey, in a proper way, then a lot of our issues and miscommunications would be eradicated. His blatant way of speaking and the emphasis that he puts on language and words is somewhat inspiring. His idea of staying silent we enable violence is so simple and yet so huge at the same time that I couldn’t believe I had never thought of that while on an internal monologue. Another one of his points that really struck me was the way that we can kind of convince ourselves of our ignorance, he uses Nicaragua as an example, and how all of the money that we’ve sent there over the years was used as a war fund and yet we saw it as a way to help the people. Or that we’ve decided that our nuclear weapons are for ‘peacekeeping’ and not intimidation or for an imminent threat that might present itself to our homeland.

I really respect the way he was able to admit to the things that he had done, and allow those things to shape him into someone who understood and took responsibility for his actions. I think that is a very admirable trait that ultimately links back to using proper names in accordance to actions and objects. All and all I agree wholeheartedly with all of Mr. Hamill’s ideas and feelings about what our society must do in order to better itself and further understanding of what people are still ignorant about.

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To find out how you can do your part to stop abuse, just like Sam Hamill, visit: http://www.stoptheviolenceinc.org/