The World Wars and their aftermath are long gone. Or are they?
However I must take issue with the ceremonies of Remembrance Day where we pay tribute to those who lost their lives supposedly fighting for my freedom. The Royal Canadian Legion describes the red poppy as a “visual pledge to never forget all those Canadians who have fallen in war and military operations”.
If I am to mourn those who died due to the madness of war, then I mourn every soldier who died; regardless of which “side” they were on.
World War II was over sixty years ago, and no one remembers the incomprehensible mess known as World War I. Yet we continue with this ceremony — replete with pipe and drum corps, color guards, police, soldiers, medals, flags, and banners — now also honoring the veterans of Korea or Afghanistan or some other dubious or idiotic military endeavor.
I refuse to support “our” troops or to take place in a military ceremony commemorating “our” fallen comrades, lest “we” forget. I refuse to oppose those dirty rotten “others”. This “us” vs. “them” mentality is what brings about war in the first place.
“Take up our quarrel with the foe...”
All persons on this planet are my brothers and sisters. We are undeniably tied to everyone and everything. When we fight someone else, we fight ourselves. We create enemies that don’t really exist.
To put an end to war forever, we need a new direction. But where do we go? Who do we turn to? The UN? NATO? Our elected “leaders”? Organized religion? (God help us). No. None of these have ever demonstrated the ability to bring about lasting peace, and they never will.
We need to realize our connection to each other; and not just realize it intellectually, but actually feel it and live it. It must be a full time occupation. This is the only thing that will prevent large scale conflicts altogether. Only you, the individual — who is not an individual, but a part of the Whole — can create peace. It must come from within.
Only peaceful souls can effect a peaceful world.
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