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Salient: Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Vol. 24, No. 9. 1961

A Word To Be Abolished

A Word To Be Abolished

The Oxford Dictionary describes "cowardice" as "the want of courage to face danger." And yet no human being has the right to call his fellow-man a coward.

What I will try to prove is the fact that No Man is a Coward. From the first day we open our eyes on the world that lies before us till the last day of our lives we face Danger. Like a treacherous monster it hides itself behind the corner and watches all our movements, ever ready to strike, ever ready to kill, to devour. This instant you are, the next you do not exist. And yet you ask a dying man if he wants to live and the answer in 99 cases out of 100 will be "Yes." Then what is the conclusion? Is 1% of our population cowardly?

Whatever we do we still find the same answer: Men are not Cowards. Who has ever said that he was afraid of living? Tired of it, yes, but not afraid. Whether we like it or not we have adapted ourselves to disregarding and ignoring danger. We All Are reckless. Our lives do not depend on anything else but fate, which is closely connected with danger, but we love life.

Sometimes fear, shame, love or hate make us do the boldest actions we can imagine. But this only lasts a few seconds. Our mind, like a somnabulist, pushes us forward disregarding danger. But that moment of intoxicated blankness soon passes away and we turn back to normal. Certainly it was not courage. It was an impulse, a desire, a wish to perform whatever we did.

The Future for many people is written with big bright letters at the back of their minds. Every dream and every hope is placed on that one word. And yet how futile it is. Future means darkness, uncertainty, destruction. But who realizes who thinks of these things? Even the worst pessimist feels, deep inside, that the days will brighten up "in the future," everything will turn up "in the future." This is only wishful thinking! However, it proves that every man has enough courage to overlook all mishaps and misfortunes of life.

Today in our world there is not one single cowardly man. Therefore I think the word "cowardice" should be abolished from our language!!! It has no meaning and it cannot be applied to any living being.

Marianna Beldescou.

[Moral of this discussion—we should not disarm—yet.]