We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us

“We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us”

After witnessing events that have taken place in the world, like the attack on September 11th and the building of a wall on the Mexican Border, I wonder what disaster will occur next. Are we the cause of this destruction and turmoil? When I reflect on the quote “We have met the enemy and he is us”, I look back at these events and realize that we are connected to them. Walt Kelly, the creator of the comic Pogo, is persuasively summing up his attitude towards mankind and the human condition. In saying that, because of the garbage and pollution surrounding Pogo’s habitat he states that “We have met the enemy and he is us”. I agree with what this quote is saying because of the situations I have read and witnessed throughout my life that has shown me that we are our own worst enemy.

When I was doing some research on the internet I was reading various things that people had to say about this quote. One person stated, “With the recent terrorist attacks in London, this quote is so scarily true”. When reading what others have to say, I could truly understand what this quote can imply about human beings. It means that if we can’t respect one another then we will not see any peace and will continue to hurt each other. I see this all the time in school where I overhear someone making fun of an obese person or making fun of the way people look. Everyone is different and I don’t understand why some people don’t open their eyes and see that they are taking away their self confidence. Seeing the kind of situations that are happening and have happened like the War in Iraq, global warming, and Katrina it breaks my heart. I don’t want to believe that these things are happening, but they are.

In an article on the Washington Post, I read about a lady who had two shopping experiences. These experiences made her wonder who is to blame for those rude store clerks that people like to complain about. At one store she was waiting in line and on the other line was a man who had been waiting there long before she had gotten to the checkout. She let him go in front of her and walked right out without thanking her. The second experience was in a craft store where she had discovered a coupon that wasn’t for the item she was about to purchase. Since it expired that same day, she turned to a couple behind her and asked if they could use it. They grabbed the coupon without giving her a thank you. In the article she says “If we as customers can’t be nice to one another, how can we expect store clerks to treat us respectfully. I can only think of Pogo”. (Washington Post) I thought this story was a good example of one of the ways in which this quote would be applied.

Another article I read on the War in Iraq stated that thirty months later, Americans were repeating the evil dictator, Sadamm Hussein, torturing Iraqis in the same facilities once used by Baathist thugs. U.S. soldiers would be as feared by