For, Not Against

I’ve learned to view life from the positive rather than the negative. The glass is half full rather than half empty; it’s partially sunny rather than partially cloudy; I’ve come 5 miles rather than I have 4 miles to go.

I was searching for a counter of Iraqi civilian deaths to display with the counter of American military deaths when I stumbled on a website named antiwar dot com.

I found the name interesting. Why anti-war rather than pro-peace? The part that really grabbed my curiosity was dot com.

.COM? That stands for commercial. Why didn’t the creators choose .NET as in a network of people or .ORG as in a not-for-profit organization?

As I browsed the site, I saw a link labeled “Shop”. This took me to a page offering books, shirts and miscellaneous items. Either “Shirts” or “Miscellaneous” displays a page selling buttons, magnets, hats, bags, shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers and “For the Kids”. “For the Kids” had a description of “Kids love Antiwar.com too”. This link revealed bibs, creepers and t-shirts.

The items for sale have printed on them, in large black, red and blue letters, the website’s URL – ANTI WAR DOT COM.

I don’t get it. In my opinion, it’s ridiculous to say a baby in a creeper or bib loves their website. How is the peace movement helped by advertising their website? If they must sell items, why not sell items promoting peace?

I’m not against war. I’m for peace.