Guns go home with the soldiers, but landmines are designed to kill - mindlessly, out of control, for years.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the difference between weapons used in war and those that remain dangerous long after conflicts are over.
Jody Williams' quote draws attention to the tragic reality of landmines and their long-lasting impact on communities. While soldiers may return home after a war, landmines remain hidden dangers that can indiscriminately kill or maim for years, serving as a reminder of the unintended consequences of warfare and the need for greater accountability in arms proliferation.
In practice
In a public speech about disarmament, one could use this quote to emphasize the dangers of lingering weapons.
Landmines distinguish themselves because once they have been sown, once the soldier walks away from the weapon, the landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian - a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal.
I think thereβs a mythology that if you want to change the world, you have to be sainted, like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Ordinary people with lives that go up and down and around in circles can still contribute to change.
I believe that worrying about the problems plaguing our planet without taking steps to confront them is absolutely irrelevant. The only thing that changes this world is taking action.
What I consider to be peace [is] a sustainable peace in which the majority of people on this planet have access to enough resources to live dignified lives.
The past feels distant, even when it's near. The future feels assured, even when it isn't.
Our assessment of socio-economic worth is largely a sham. We scientists should not lend ourselves to it - though we routinely do. We should, instead, insist on applying the criterion of quality.
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.
In all the institutions I try to be present and accountable for all I do and leave undone. I know that eventually I shall have to be present and accountable n the presence of God. I do not wish to be found wanting.
Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorites, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. To save his life he could not have kept two of these young creatures satisfactorily refreshed, even if he had fifteen experts to help him. Necessarily almost the entire thousand had to go hungry for years and years on a stretch. Conceive of a man hardhearted enough to look daily upon all that suffering and not be moved to mitigate it.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
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