awards medals to generals
These days, the siren song of ~grad school~ is not quite so loud, replaced by the incessant drumbeat of so what are you doing to reduce all these harms.
There are so many / there are so many ways to show up.
I buy books for the little ones in my life, I read to them, I wonder what the world will be like for them, I wonder how to make the world a better place for them.
Is the only difference between dread and despair the belief that the fight is still worth it?
The fight is to deserve the optimism of those children.
Attribution:
The war continues working, day and night.
It inspires tyrants
to deliver long speeches
awards medals to generals
and themes to poets
it contributes to the industry
of artificial limbs
provides food for flies
adds pages to the history books
achieves equality
between killer and killed
— from “The War Works” by Dunya Mikahail