Revolution = Change, often first appearing as Chaos...

A few years ago, I became painfully aware that the history of how and why certain things have changed (for the better) in the United States has been "rewritten" or "edited out" in our public school books over the past +20 years, to the extent that many people (under 40 years old) do not have a full understanding as to "what it took" to bring about some of the changes they take for granted today - it is called R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N - and it's not pretty. Perhaps that is why much of the revolution that brought about these changes has been erased or "massaged" to something more palatable by some. If these (revolutionary) things had not occured, women wouldn't be allowed to vote (do you realize that women have been "allowed" to vote less than 100 years now - refer to the 19th Amendment of the U.S.), legally own property or go to college. Without the Civil War and the revolution that supported it, Slavery and segregation could still be legal. I won't omit that first a heart breaking number of Native Americans were deceived and slaughtered in order to "settle" North America, but that's another post.

My focus on this post is that CHANGE often first appears as chaos; consider revolution as a good, messy, uncomfortable example of that perceived chaos. When common sense dictates something is not civil nor fair, expect some level and form of revolution. Resistance, anger, denial, are some of the elements that begin a revolution, in its early stages. The U.S. doesn't own the market on revolution.

Consider what is happening in Syria's ongoing revolution right now. Since their Civil War began in 2011, the citizens of Syria (mostly women & children) have been fleeing for their lives with nothing more than the clothes they wear. The situation is dire and of the most devastating we may have seen in this current generation. This is part of what the residual fallout, the process, of what revolution looks like for Syria.

During the U.S. Civil War, ~620,000 lives were lost over a brief four year period, 1861-65. The number of lives lost during the U.S. Civil War, represent about half of ALL U.S. war casualties to date, including Vietnam and Iraq-Afghanistan. Keep in mind that the weapons used during the Civil War were muskets, canons, black powder pistols and rifles, sabres, bayonets, and hand to hand combat, not to mention the harsh living conditions of those who fought in that war. There were no airplanes dropping bombs, no machine guns, no hand grenades, no jets firing from the skies. Just let that sink in as I remind you that 620,000 lives were lost in the four short years of the Civil War.

But, that is what it took to abolish slavery in the U.S. Today, I ask this: "Would anyone stand up and say it wasn't worth it?"

We might reconsider, when we see resistance, revolution, denial; we might look to what "change" might need to take place before we discount and degrade those who are causing us to be "uncomfortable" with their actions. We might ask ourselves to look beyond the ugliness of revolution, in all its stages, and try to understand why something needs to change and work towards finding a way to compromise and help others do the same.