Lest We Forget

This was the first year that I had mixed feelings about wearing a poppy. As a child and teenager, I saw Remembrance Day as a time to reflect on the horrors of war and to be grateful for the sacrifices that soldiers made for our freedom. Soldiers fought for different reasons. Many went out of a sense of duty and loyalty to Canada and Britain. Perhaps some went in the interest of doing what they could to restore justice to the situation. Others went seeking adventure. They had no idea just what a terrible sort of adventure it would be. My mother had an uncle who ran away and lied about his age to enlist when he was 16. He came back “shell shocked” and lived the rest of his life in institutions. My mother had to older uncles who went to war as well. One never spoke about his experiences. The other was proud to be a veteran, spoke with emotion about his memories, and took part in Legion activities. All three of these reactions to the war were common.

It’s tempting to think of those who fought in the world wars as unwitting pawns in a game between the world powers of the time. The little people thought what they were told to thought and did what they were told to do, and died doing it. I think it’s important to respect their courage to do what they considered was their duty, whether we believe in war or not.

In junior high, one of my teachers showed us a series of videos put out by the War Amps entitled Never Again. They depicted the horror of the war, and the importance of avoiding another war. I had always thought that Remembrance Day was about not wanting to repeat the experiences of the past. War was a painful mistake that we needed to learn about so that we would not make it again. Isn’t that what “Lest we forget” meant? Perhaps all that is meant by “Lest we forget” is that if we don’t honour the sacrifices of those who fought for Canada, they will have died in vain. I thought it also implied that if we forget what they went through, we would wind up in the same miserable situation. Remembrance Day for me has always included gratitude for the peace I experience in my life, and the desire to keep it that way.

Over the last year, I became aware that Canada’s mission in Afghanistan was not our usual peace keeping ritual, but a war. We are at war against the Taliban. As much as I don’t like what the Taliban represents, or the life Afghanis had to bear under it’s rule, I don’t agree with warfare. My poppy can’t represent the War Amp’s slogan “Never Again” this year. We are at it again. We’ve been at it for four years, and I just wasn’t admitting it. Afghanistan is a much smaller war than those fought in Europe by our fathers and grandfathers, but it is a war all the same.

I commemorate the sacrifices made by WWI and WWII soldiers and their families for my country. Today I remember those who are fighting and dying in Afghanistan, and those who love them. They are brave and committed people. I appreciate their sacrifices, but I don’t agree that they should be making them. To me, remembering war includes wanting to end it. It’s naïve to think that every individual on Earth will ever be committed to peace, but it’s a nice idea all the same. If every individual simply refused to participate in violence, there would be no one for the politicians to send to war. This seems like a disastrous idea, I know, because if we just refused to fight, what would stop other countries or terrorists from attacking us? I know those in our military are there because they want to defend Canada and the human rights that Canada stands for. On the other hand, the more people who refuse to fight, the closer the world would be to not having terrorists.

Remembrance Day is held on the 11^th of November every year, because on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918, WWI officially ended. WWI was known at the time as the war to end all wars. Unfortunately, it didn’t end all wars. There are several different wars going on today. We can’t just blame Hitler and Saddam and the Taliban, etc for these subsequent wars. We have to take responsibility for our part in the conflicts. Canada has been a peace-keeping nation for decades, but we are back at war. Is that what we want? If not, what are we going to do about it?