Taking Action - a Superior Way to Solve Conflict

It’s a Saturday afternoon, when a drunk man tries to destroy a Lamborghini’s windows with an axe. It’s a Monday night, and your TV suddenly stopped working and Monday Night Football is on. Both of these examples are times of conflict. When in times of conflict, one must figure out what he’s going to do. Is he going to wait and hope the conflict stops, hide from the conflict, or take action against the conflict. Although there are many ways a person can use in times of conflict, it is obvious that people will best respond to conflict by taking action.

Taking action can be used in a variety of ways, which makes it such a superior way to solve conflict. One of the many ways one can take action is by using violence, as demonstrated by the Hitler Youth. In the Hitler Youth passage, Susan Campbell Bartoletti states”...Broke window of Latin teacher… for low grades.” This is a way used by the Hitler Youth in times of “conflict” when they got low grades from a Latin Teacher. Even if one doesn’t want to be violent, one could do something else while taking action, such as forming their own views and implementing them in their life by spreading the word.

Sophie Scholl, a girl in Nazi Germany, used her views as taking action. In the Hitler youth passage, she “began to grow away from the National Socialist ideas about race, religion, and duty. She was beginning to form her own political views” Having a variety of ways to solve conflict makes it such a good way to resolve conflict. People might say that these ways could be ineffective, but really, all this shows there is so much to choose from. Taking Action is also something important people used to resolve conflict.

When Winston Churchill assumed office, he said, “I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.” and “...prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion.” (Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat). Winston Churchill is an important figure in the modern history, and is someone everyone knows today, so everyone should follow his example and take action in conflict.

Some might say the Japanese Internment Camp Japanese Americans did just fine not taking action in the camps, but in the end of the day, the actions of people like, FDR, Churchill, Gandhi, King, and Mandela are the people remembered throughout history, people who took action. Taking action has been used in many occasions in history. For example, as recent in 2015, after the death of African American Freddie Gray from police brutality, Baltimore went all out and took action on the conflict of police brutality.

According to the The Guardian’s Baynard Woods and Madhvi Pankhania, “The clash spread to the corners of Pennsylvania and North Avenues where a CVS drugstore, followed by other stores, was looted. Rioters set a police car on fire and then a CVS. The police stay lined up in a battalion, watching. Crowds of young people spread out through downtown, breaking windows, and more fires burned. The mayor and governor declared a state of emergency and set a curfew for the following night.” In such a important event in modern history having to do with police killing African Americans who are unarmed or not violent, the city of Baltimore, rather than wait or ignore, took action to a point that it turned into a state of emergency.

There are many occasions in last 300 years where taking action has been used in times of conflict. Some examples would be the Boston Tea Party, Women’s Suffrage Parade, Abolitionist Movement, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Protest, all which have ended up in success. Of course, there’s always someone who’s going to say, “But Ignoring or hiding has worked in the past too!” However, it isn’t very common and isn’t likely to work, as the source of the conflict will keep getting bigger. Hitler, for example, used the first couple years to keep taking land, while the rest of Europe let him in hopes to not start a war and waited for him to stop, but he never stopped. Taking Action has proved to be a way everyone should choose when in times of conflict.

There are many ways you can solve conflict, making it a way that anyone can choose and follow through with. Additionally, hordes of influential people have used action to solve a conflict they were stuck in. Furthermore, the technique of taking action has been used in so much times throughout history it has become the way to choose. If taking action has worked in the past, it for sure will work today.