Lest We Forget

So, today I am too sick to go to the Remembrance Day Service as I usually do. But this topic has been on my mind. I finished reading "Stones From the River" late last night. I like reading novels about war at this time of year.

So on Remembrance Day, I do not honour our soldiers - survivors or fallen. Instead I pay witness to what we have required of your young men and women. I pay witness not to their fighting for my freedom but to the huge sacrifices they were called upon to make that no one should ever be called upon to make. I pay witness to their suffering. I weep for their suffering - the the terrible things they witnessed, that they had to do to survive, that were done to them.

What is most unbelievable to me is that this is still going on. How many soldiers and civilians have died in Iraq? Afganistan? This violence must stop. It must stop in our hearts, in our homes, in our communities, in our countries, in the world. We must come to value our own lives for the incredible gift that they are and value each other for the incredible, unique contributions that we each make. We need to love ourselves and love each other. We need to reach out in understanding. We need to finally learn how to compromise and then we might even start to be able to come to consensus. We need to realize that might is never right. Love is the power of creation. If we want to create peace, we need to love and value ourselves and then reach out in love to another - to the hardest one for us to love - they only sybolize what is hardest to love in ourselves.

So, for today, lest we forget the horrible, horrible results of judgement, blame and prejudice; lest we forget the innocent young men and women who lost their innocence because of this; lest we forget our own responsibility....