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Remembrance Sunday
So that's twice now that I've forgotten to be silent at 11am. The first time was on Sunday when, running late as always, we charged noisily into our church meeting, to be met with a wall of silence. The second time was yesterday, when I walked briskly into the bank in town, smiled at the man in the foyer, wondered why he didn't smile back, and then noticed everyone standing motionless in various positions in the bank, as if they had just been turned to stone.
The thing is that I don't really get Remembrance Sunday. In this country that's tantamount to blasphemy isn't it? I think I'm instinctively repelled by anything that involves pomp and ceremony - somehow it brings out the inherent rebel in me! Don't get me wrong: I understand that it's important to remember these things and the people who've died. What I think I don't like is the emphasis on 'dying for one's country'. Again, I understand where that comes from, but the emphasis for me shouldn't be on dying for one's country so much as on dying for something as awful as war. It's almost as if we're saying, 'war is fine, but it's sad when someone dies because of it'.
War is not fine. War is terrible. War is senseless and stupid and an affront to a God of love, peace, compassion and forgiveness.
This isn't an argument for or against war, it's an argument that says that war itself shows the depths of sin that we are in as human beings. On Remembrance Sunday I don't want to be quiet and think about those who've died: I want to be angry and shout at the stupidity and selfishness of human beings who act in such a way that makes war necessary. I want to rage against the deaths of millions of people who shouldn't have died in the way they did.
If we put as much energy into working for peace as we do into remembering those who have died, then maybe Remembrance Sunday would be worth it.
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Ruth Valerio, 12/11/2009 |
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| | tony roper | 21/11/2009 21:48 | | I too feel an instintive dislike to an imposed rememberence day. I've never really understood where this comes from. As I have grown older I have disliked the idea of war more and more. War is just so destructive. I need to remember this. After all the killing is done we still have to sit down and talk so why not talk now. Two things I have read. 'Do you really think the only way to bring about real peace is to sacrifice your children and kill all your enemies'. Also, 'if we gave all the money that we are going to spend on a war to people of the country we are fighting in then perhaps the war would never get fought.
| | | Rosemary (Guest) | 13/12/2009 14:28 | | Many people DO want to remember those that have died - to thank them for the freedom that we ALL have now.
Being angry and shouting does no good - isn't it want creates war in the first place.........!!!???
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