The Silent Peacekeeper

The first shot rings out in war.  One side holds peace.  They take the first hit.  What is service?  What is self sacrifice?  What is peace?  So that those may have every chance afforded to them of the last breath of compassion.  Holding back says their life is more important than ours.  
As the black shadowy silhouette mirrored my image,... the thought came to me…"that's a life, that's a human".  The term brother arose in my mind.  I pictured a scenario of a battle, of a man, of a different origin.  He was smiling and his family was standing by his side.  Sure he looked different then me and had a different belief.  But he loved his version of god, his country and his family all the same as I.  I was raised in a society where the flag was always right and everything else was wrong.  Why question the red, the white and the blue?  How could something such as democracy and freedom ever be wrong?  In the end of each person's life these are choices we make and live with.  Pull the trigger or lay down our arms?  In the greater good of the world what person would surrender their life for another?  It is the duty of each human to look into their heart and say to their brother "your life means more than mine".  "To Protect and Serve". This motto is very recognizable to many people.  They relate it to the blue.  True peace is held at the sacrifice of oneself.  I'll say that one more time...let it sink in...True peace is held at the sacrifice of oneself.  This is the heart and soul of this country.  If we could only do so much as to ask...Could you lay down your life for your brother?  Let him take the first shot if he feels he must.  Whatever harm or reason he determined was right.  Then became his only last option….to fire.  What is your truth on the other end of the bullet?  Can we truly know our brother would actually fire?  Criminals criminals they scream...yes this is true but sometimes our brothers are criminals.  Does that mean love is lost?  Not to some of us….to some of us our brothers are criminals and we love them.  Now I ask I plead beyond your procedures beyond yourself.  Take the last shot.  This service rings past the battle.  In fact it ends the war with one strike.  The hit we take for others.  When the stage is set and the tensions are high in that fraction of an instant...bring America back.  The quite sound of one shot...then...the still of peace.  No words would be spoken when we all knew you died for peace.  This is not an imaginary godly act unattainable by men.  This is an act of valor by great men.  Men with love and compassion.  Men who understand we should not turn on each other over fault.  And for those men who fire first how come you cannot see past all the systems and training and look another man in the face and call him a brother.  This is our division...our selfish selves.  The first shot.  This is truth….if you want to stake claim to the term peacekeepers by literal definition of the word peace.  You have to take the first hit.  It is the ultimate sacrifice for a brother.  When we react first we become the Judge.  When we assume guilt even seen guilt we become the Judge.  The bullet becomes the Judge and says guilty.  We need to fully return to innocent until proven guilty.  Even at the cost of ourselves.  Peacekeepers please take the first hit for us that we remain free to the very point of wrong.  Because otherwise wrong makes right wrong.  Freedom isn't free.  If you sign up to serve, serve for us... even when we don't know right from wrong.  And the trumpets will sound for us all.