Joss Sheldon

For real men serve their country with random acts of kindness, not vicious acts of violence. And real soldiers have one duty, and one duty only; they have a duty to mutiny!

Those drugs were either going to bring me nirvana or they were going to kill me. I was sure of it. And I was comfortable with it.

The creature who lives inside my brain suggested I do it,_ I offered tentatively. __t was very convincing.

My parents, you see, were a little square. They cared more about being good parents in the general sense than being good parents for me. They wanted to appear normal; respectable and responsible. But they weren__ prepared to acknowledge my individual needs.

No thanky-you; you can't overcome hatred with more hatred. Force can kill the liar but not the lie, the hater but not the hate, and the violent but not the violence. Hate begets hate, violence begets violence, and war begets war.

I learned how to argue. They called it __ebate_. I learned how to worship. I learned how to become an eager worker and a passive consumer.But I didn__ learn anything practical, like how to purify water, build a home, start a fire, grow food, or survive without the help of corporations.

I liked all the children in my class. Back then, I think we all just tacitly assumed that we were equal. That we were all in the same boat. We didn__ really think about our different genders, races or classes. We just co-existed, like one big family.