Where I'm standing, today is Veteran's Day.
In the UK, today is Remembrance Day.
In both places, it used to be Armistice Day.
Commemorating an Armistice shows and maintains respect for an act of peace. A day which stands as a testament to those who fought in past wars is commendable, but isn't the same. Wouldn't it be easy to move from acknowledging the sacrifices made by those who fought and start commending them for the act of fighting? And if you do, how far are you from celebrating an act of peace then?
I suppose it would depend on your point of view.
After four years of terrible war, the world breathed a sigh of relief on the signing of the Armistice on November 11th, 1918, and the memory of that moment, of the cessation of brutal and protracted fighting was celebrated. After years of fear, sacrifice, death and struggle, suddenly there was peace. Who wouldn't want to celebrate that?
After six years of terrible war across the globe, the world breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the Second World War on September the 2nd, 1945. Fighting on four continents had ended. Who wouldn't want to celebrate that?
War after war after war has shown that 'Armistice Day' isn't something that some national governments can happily celebrate when they themselves have military agendas.
This not a simple issue. As a pacifist, how would I have felt in England in 1939? Hitler invaded Poland in an act of unprovoked aggression. Massed forces in a style of warfare as yet unseen in the world rolled across the Polish border and the nation was quelled and taken over with startling speed.
Europe went to war, and it is easy for me to say with hindsight that it was necessary. Vital.
I wouldn't have been happy about it, but what else was there to do?
To say I am a pacifist is not slurring those who fought when they had to; to say I am against the war in Iraq isn't saying those who fight are fools; to say that I am against death, against loss, against grief and against pain and suffering...this is saying that I am a pacifist.
Today I remember the people sitting around tables at the end of every war. I remember the beginnings of peace. I remember the efforts of those working to maintain peace. Instead of remembering the fighting and the death that grew out of differences, I am trying to think of the years people around the world have lived without war.
Think of the years of peace, the years nobody died, the years no couples said what could turn out to be their last goodbye, the years there were no threats, the years people lived, the years children grew, the years with peace.
And then and only then will I remember there is an alternative I do not want.
some day soon, i should play you Utah Phillips's song "Anarchy,"
Pacifism - it's not just giving up guns and knives and clubs and fists and angry words, butgiving up the weapons of privelage, and going into the world completely disarmed.
thought provoking, anyway.
Some food for thought, perhaps not entirely relevant, and given your choice of country of location perhaps less so.. but have a look here.
Basically the government in the UK have just been voted down for keeping people imprisoned without charge for 90 days (they got 28 through okay though, an extension from the current 14) but when Iran holds people without charge for 14 days, it's *kidnapping*. Double standards ahoy.
What really bothers me - and sorry to go on about this in your comments, rather than in my blog - is that we seem to have forgotten the fact that we *should* all be equal. If we all just took a step back, and thought from a perspective that didn't leap to violence as a first choice in terms of action, then maybe we wouldn't have been in the situations we have in Afghanistan and Iraq.
*moan over*
Thought provoking post.