2004 — 5th Place — 8th Grade

Charles Vila, Washington

Is peace possible? Are human capable of keeping peace in the world? Or is fighting just something in humans that we can't prevent? These are the types of questions you have probably asked yourselves after looking at the news everyday. Personally I do think it is possible if only a couple things were changed, and I have three strong reasons to support this opinion.

"All wars are fought for money" this is one of the many famous quotes said by a great Greek philosopher, Socrates. I believe that his quote is most of the time very true. Usually wars are partially fought for money. For example, with the war in Iraq, Bush wanted to change their leaders, which was a very good thing to do. But he also wanted something more than that, their resources. So he used the excuse that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction just so America could take over Iraq and its resources. Greed is definitely the main cause for war. If greed didn't exist then we would all help each other out and peace would exist worldwide.

Apart from money, there is also jealousy. Jealousy is another major reason for war. If people weren't jealous then they wouldn't be mean to each other. Jealousy is like a dictator. It tries to take over people's life and takes everything they have. If everybody is equal then this sort of thing would not happen. But, if this is impossible for human then people should try to accept what they have and who they are instead of always wanting more, and more, and more. Jealousy is really one of the main causes for war.

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind," this is probably Gandhi's most popular quote. Its meaning is profound and very clear. When Gandhi said this he meant that if you revenge whenever somebody did something wrong to you then it will just start a violence cycle. Two wrongs don't make a right, and as Jesus said, we should turn the other cheek instead of fighting back with violence. Revenging is another very bad thing about humans.

Are humans capable of keeping peace in the world? Yes, if only they respect the basic rules of what not to do and what to do. But I think it will take a long time before humans realize how important world peace is. If money, jealousy, and revenge never existed, then war would never exist and peace would rule earth. I look forward to the day when humans will respect each other and war would be a word unknown to civilization.

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