MEDICATION NEEDED

by Ruth A. Sheets

When I was in 8^th grade, my history teacher made a unique assignment.  We were to write a day by day "news report" of what later came to be called, "the Six-day War" between Israel and its neighbors.  I read the paper and watched the news each evening and realized that the situation was far more complex than any report I could write.  I learned there is a history behind what is happening and that it is not always easily understood.  And, people's beliefs and emotions get mixed up in the events too. 

I got a second dose of this when the following year my Civics teacher assigned us to keep a "diary" of events in the Vietnam War for February 1968, which turned out to be one of the deadliest months of the war for the US.

At the end of each assignment, I was angry that there was absolutely nothing I could do that would in any way impact what was going on.  I couldn't stop Israel from taking over other people's land and I couldn't stop the destruction in Vietnam.  That one-month assignment ultimately led to my loss of support  for our government's war, and all our wars since then.

I doubt the journalists I was reading intended people to feel so angry and impotent, but the men who start wars either don't think about how people will respond to them or don't care as long as we don't get in their way.  I suspect those men are thinking only of how to achieve their goal, whatever that is.  They have to have enough force behind their efforts to keep things going, no matter what, and just enough popular support at home.  Journalists are just supposed to cover the action.

Last month, Russia attacked Ukraine.  The reason has changed over time"  Ukraine is really part of Russia, Ukraine is run by Nazis that have to be taken out, Russia is worried about NATO, Russia wants to give a black eye to the West - the US.  I suspect Russian President Putin has more excuses to pump out in case the above list doesn't work, or he'll keep using them all and add new ones as they occur to him.  Some are lies, some have a kernel of truth.  The whole operation is bullying, getting others to hurt the people he wants hurt so he can go in and take over.  his crew of soldiers is expendable as are the people of Ukraine.

Journalists have been covering the destruction Russian forces have been causing as well as the civilian deaths.  Instead of just numbers, reporters are interviewing Ukrainians facing the Russian onslaught.  It has been harder to interview Russians since Putin has shut down all but his media which broadcasts and prints only what he wants put out to the people.  Does it matter what Russians say if they only receive Putin-approved messages?  What would they base their opinions on when they could be arrested for speaking what the government doesn't want them to say? 

I have been feeling the kind of impotence I felt more than 50  years ago after my jr. high school assignments, as I learn about Russia's attack on Ukraine.  Unless Russia stops its insane invasion, there are no good solutions.  Russia is a nation where one man and the toadies he has groomed to go along with whatever he decides can invade any country or territory he wants.  China's Xi Jinping is in the same position deciding what to do about Taiwan, a nation that is happy with its independence, but Xi claims it is really China.  Will either risk a nuclear conflict? 

The United States is not blameless either.  We attacked Iraq with no real evidence of the "weapons of mass destruction" George W. Bush claimed.  We have been out of Iraq for more than a decade.  Is life in Iraq better now than before we invaded?  It depends on who you talk to.  The many people who died I suspect aren't doing better.

I see no end to the insanity and our feeling of helplessness that accompanies male aggression, unless there is an intervention.  A conservative pundit recently stated that war is the nature of things and part of the human condition, so we should just live with it.  I have heard that all my life, but I don't believe it.  I think it is the excuse we use to allow some men to remain children, the bullying kind of children.  Their childish behavior elicits a parental response from people who let them maintain it, but in adult settings.  We mistake their bullying, loud-mouthed proclamations, and abuse  as strength, not the bratty, whiny, childish trying to be king of the hill, boss of everyone around so they don't have to listen to anyone that it really is.  They particularly don't want to hear from those adults in the room who might tell them "no." 

I have a proposal.  I would like to see women and men who are researchers and want peace for the peoples of the world, to work on a medication that could be introduced to a leader's water system or air when talk of violence toward another nation or group breaks out.  Brain research has increased dramatically since my Jr. High days, so I am hoping something positive can come of it.  Brain scientists should look at the parts of the brain that light up when leaders and others are itching for a fight.  Find a way to send a medication that would slow down that part of the brain long enough for a cool-off period.  The medication could be spread as a temporary fog or highly targeted water infusion. 

I know I'm dreaming, but something does need to be done to  keep child-men out of power whenever possible, and keep men in leadership from harming other nations or their own people.  We as a whole people of Earth need to work on stopping global warming ASAP.  We don't have time to waste on deliberate destruction, killing, and out-of-control child-man leaders, some of whom have nuclear weapons, not to mention the cyber ones. 

We need you, brain scientists.  We need an anti-war, anti-megalomania medication soon!  Very soon!!