I think it’s stupid, do you?

I think it’s stupid…

To think that the trauma and suffering of thirty years can be extinguished by one bullet to the back of one guy’s head.

I think it’s stupid…

To celebrate the death of those who didn’t want to die; and especially those that didn’t deserve to die.

I think it’s stupid…

For the Buddhist flag to be seen anywhere at any time during any celebration of the end of the war.

I think it’s stupid…

To call for a homeland without having any inkling of moving into it.

I think it’s stupid…

To expect there to be no civilian casualties.

I think it’s stupid…

After all that’s gone on to expect Sinhalese and Tamil people to live together in peace and harmony overnight.

I think it’s stupid…

Not to learn the language of someone you want coexist with. It’s like not talking to your roommate.

I think it’s stupid…

To wilfully break the law and expect sympathy for being clapped in jail.

I think it’s stupid…

That we forget that people are remanded cos they can’t pay their 2000 rupee fine for ganja possession and have been in jail for years for doing something we do at every party we go to but they don’t have any one to make a phone call.

I think it’s stupid…

That we don’t seem to appreciate how little we have actually suffered, and that getting your nuts groped at a checkpoint is a small price to pay for being alive.

I think it’s stupid…

That any victory that costs 75,000 lives is called a Victory at all.

I think it’s stupid…

That I can’t tell you I think you’re stupid without you getting pissed off.

I think it’s stupid…

That we hear each other and never listen.

I think it’s stupid…

To think that war is only fought by soldiers on battlefields when it’s actually fought by our egos in our heads.

But it just may be that I’m stupid for thinking this way. Do you? 

[Editors note: This is something the author, I am told, wrote literally in three minutes for an open mic night in Colombo recently. The author notes that it was not initially meant to be published in print, but hopes that it provokes some good discussion on Groundviews.]