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sabotabbyNo, I do want to do a Remembrance Day post.
I say the same stuff every year. I probably won't say it as well this year because I'm tired and in a rush.
Today it's this: War sucks. It sucks for soldiers, and it sucks worse for civilians who don't make the choice, coerced or willing, to get bombs dropped on them and who tend not to even have the piddly protection of weapons or tanks. We ought to remember that, and I like the idea of setting aside a day to make everyone think about it.
But we do have choices in how we remember. One of these choices is as bad as forgetting. It's worse than forgetting. Better to forget that there is such a thing as war than to turn it into something glorious, and in so doing, ensure that there will always be those willing to fight. Better to turn in shamed silence than to call heroes those who, from a distance, drop bombs on children. Better to say nothing than to endorse torture.
We can choose to elevate the status of a particular profession and a particular activity. But not if we're honest. If we're honest, we know that the carpenter, the farmer, the factory worker, the scientist, the social worker, the doctor, the kindergarten teacher, the streetcar driver are all more vital to freedom and security than the soldier. We know that armistice is not about the triumph of winning, but the relief of survival. We know the politicians proudly wearing their poppies and waving little Canadian flags are the same ones short-changed wounded veterans when they return home. We know that some of our "heroes" have tortured and killed civilians, including children. We know about those left without legs or arms or faces, with brain damage, with PTSD, their names and numbers carefully hidden from the public eye. We know why wars are fought, and how they seldom have anything to do with freedom at all.
Or we can choose to set aside a day—and maybe more than one day, maybe every day—to remember that war is hell. To honour the dead; the soldiers, yes, but also the civilians, the victims, the resistance fighters, the refugees, the orphaned. To pledge to work towards a better future, one of kindness, civility, and humanism.
Sometimes people notice that I don't wear a poppy this time of year (though sometimes I wear a white poppy and this year I have a button). As I don't always explain it, they probably think I'm lazy or inconsiderate, or ungrateful. Thing is, I have a much better memory than most people who make a big deal about Remembrance Day. I was out there protesting for peace when my country declared war in 2001. It was just me, a handful of fringe lefties, and the IS, but I was out there. Most of the country apparently did not remember what war was like, and was thus in favour of it.
To remember is to work for peace.
I say the same stuff every year. I probably won't say it as well this year because I'm tired and in a rush.
Today it's this: War sucks. It sucks for soldiers, and it sucks worse for civilians who don't make the choice, coerced or willing, to get bombs dropped on them and who tend not to even have the piddly protection of weapons or tanks. We ought to remember that, and I like the idea of setting aside a day to make everyone think about it.
But we do have choices in how we remember. One of these choices is as bad as forgetting. It's worse than forgetting. Better to forget that there is such a thing as war than to turn it into something glorious, and in so doing, ensure that there will always be those willing to fight. Better to turn in shamed silence than to call heroes those who, from a distance, drop bombs on children. Better to say nothing than to endorse torture.
We can choose to elevate the status of a particular profession and a particular activity. But not if we're honest. If we're honest, we know that the carpenter, the farmer, the factory worker, the scientist, the social worker, the doctor, the kindergarten teacher, the streetcar driver are all more vital to freedom and security than the soldier. We know that armistice is not about the triumph of winning, but the relief of survival. We know the politicians proudly wearing their poppies and waving little Canadian flags are the same ones short-changed wounded veterans when they return home. We know that some of our "heroes" have tortured and killed civilians, including children. We know about those left without legs or arms or faces, with brain damage, with PTSD, their names and numbers carefully hidden from the public eye. We know why wars are fought, and how they seldom have anything to do with freedom at all.
Or we can choose to set aside a day—and maybe more than one day, maybe every day—to remember that war is hell. To honour the dead; the soldiers, yes, but also the civilians, the victims, the resistance fighters, the refugees, the orphaned. To pledge to work towards a better future, one of kindness, civility, and humanism.
Sometimes people notice that I don't wear a poppy this time of year (though sometimes I wear a white poppy and this year I have a button). As I don't always explain it, they probably think I'm lazy or inconsiderate, or ungrateful. Thing is, I have a much better memory than most people who make a big deal about Remembrance Day. I was out there protesting for peace when my country declared war in 2001. It was just me, a handful of fringe lefties, and the IS, but I was out there. Most of the country apparently did not remember what war was like, and was thus in favour of it.
To remember is to work for peace.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 01:13 am (UTC)Pro'bly gonna link to this
Date: 2010-11-12 01:49 am (UTC)Re: Pro'bly gonna link to this
Date: 2010-11-12 02:05 am (UTC)I've been trying to figure out where they are made (they are no longer made by disabled veterans).
Re: Pro'bly gonna link to this
Date: 2010-11-12 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 11:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 07:25 am (UTC)That is becoming one of my new talking points.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 11:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-15 12:06 am (UTC)