In some sense, when you take a child soldier out of an armed group, you've taken away the identity he or she has had for years, and you can't assume life is just going to return to normal.
Interpretation
Removing a child soldier from conflict does not guarantee an easy return to normal life.
This quote highlights the profound psychological and social impact that being a child soldier has on a young person. It emphasizes that their identity is deeply tied to their experiences in warfare, and simply removing them from that situation does not ensure they can seamlessly reintegrate into society or reclaim a typical childhood; rather, it requires understanding, support, and rehabilitation.
In practice
In a speech on child welfare, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for specialized support for children affected by war.
As human beings, we all have reasons for our behavior. There may be people who have certain physiological issues that dictate why they make certain choices. On the whole, though, I think we're dictated by our structure, our past, our environment, our culture. So once you understand the patterns that shape a person, how can you not find sympathy?
I think that cinema and the arts are central in our lives because we grow up and learn about the world through our exposure to stories. Parents use them as a tool to teach their children fundamental truths and values, much as adults can view them to gain exposure to cultures and individuals that they'd never be able to view in their own lives.
Cinema and the arts invite viewers to focus on a story and, in doing so, peel away its layers and peer into the depths of the human soul.
I put down the camera long ago, you know? I was here in London, aged 19, and I was obsessed with my camera, shooting everything I could. Then someone stole it. It helped me to see things for the first time.
You try to pull away the experiences until you get to the core of humanity, and you find that light that exists in everybody. It's that light that I'm searching for in all of my work - is that connective thing, that ether that enters all of us - you know what I mean? That's a part of God.
For many child soldiers, war and violence are all they have ever known. If we don't take it upon ourselves to show them an alternative, then they're going to be soldiers forever, and they'll continue to be recruited and to participate in violence if another conflict starts five or 10 years down the road.
What I've noticed is not only in the military, but in the first responders community, that when you reach out your hand to help one of them, they almost always grab your hand with only one of theirs, because they're using their other hand to reach behind them and pull up somebody else with them.
I refuse to allow prejudice to defeat me.
There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion.
Sometimes it takes more courage to get up and run than to stay. You either just do it or you don't. I got so scared the first day in combat I just decided to go along with it.
I became a bomb technician because I wanted to save lives. I nearly gave my own life for that - I lost both my legs and a finger when a roadside bomb detonated beneath me - and have known more heroes than I can count who died defending others.
I'm a human being I'm not a piece of property. I am not a consignment of goods.
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