lest we...damn, what's that last bit?
Anzac Day has come and gone again and the mixed feelings surge through me. See, what we have is a phrase "Lest We Forget", but all I wonder is, forget what?
Now, I'm not taking cheap-shots. I buy into the memoradum. My family was-like most anyone's family-effected by war. My Grandfather (the one I actually met) was pretty much side-lined for the rest of his life thanks to the so-called Second Great War so I can bare witness to the long-term effects of such carnage on a person. That includes the family also, my Grandmother didn't get away scot-free just because she didn't travel the World to kill people. This isn't a solitary story. Most everyone in the World was effected in one way or another by these live-fire exercises. It's from this fact and the anger I feel towards the chaos of mass-conflict that my view-point is coming. I (foolishly) believe that if we plan not to forget, we should actually look–and if possible act–like we haven't forgotten and give it more value than simple lip-service.
Lest We Forget. It seems a simple thing to say and is said with such emotion from so many during this time (at least it is in countries I've lived: New Zealand and Australia). Yet when you ask people "forget what?" you get quizical and often hostile responses. Seriously, forget what? Forget the lives lost? Forget the service that men and women gave to their country? Forget the price paid for our modern world, our modern lifestyles? What would happen if we did forget? Shit, we might just forget what a steep price everyone paid and just hop back on the war-train. Fuck, too late we are. We always are. There's always been a skirmish here or a light conflict there. For us in the ANZAC countries it's mainly under the radar, unless you actually read anything but local papers or have a family / friend in the armed services. I mean at least the so-called Great Wars were for a reason that seems just. Now though, we fight for commerce and lifestyle. Well 'we' don't, but we like to live vicariously at a distance. All I ask is if we look past the fucking lip-service and rhetoric and we might just realise that those that gave their life gave it for a better world. I'm fairly sure the better world they would have hoped for didn't include more led-based-depleted-uranium reinforced body count.
All current war sentiment aside, I still ask "forget what?". We posture and pontificate over the day and the phrase yet we don't seem to fucking learn or more importantly act from it. Simple evolution might be nice. Lest we forget the price paid by the few so they don't have to pay it again. Pay the dead back by letting their gift mean something.
quote for the day:
"Never has there been a good war or a bad peace"
- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
Now, I'm not taking cheap-shots. I buy into the memoradum. My family was-like most anyone's family-effected by war. My Grandfather (the one I actually met) was pretty much side-lined for the rest of his life thanks to the so-called Second Great War so I can bare witness to the long-term effects of such carnage on a person. That includes the family also, my Grandmother didn't get away scot-free just because she didn't travel the World to kill people. This isn't a solitary story. Most everyone in the World was effected in one way or another by these live-fire exercises. It's from this fact and the anger I feel towards the chaos of mass-conflict that my view-point is coming. I (foolishly) believe that if we plan not to forget, we should actually look–and if possible act–like we haven't forgotten and give it more value than simple lip-service.
Lest We Forget. It seems a simple thing to say and is said with such emotion from so many during this time (at least it is in countries I've lived: New Zealand and Australia). Yet when you ask people "forget what?" you get quizical and often hostile responses. Seriously, forget what? Forget the lives lost? Forget the service that men and women gave to their country? Forget the price paid for our modern world, our modern lifestyles? What would happen if we did forget? Shit, we might just forget what a steep price everyone paid and just hop back on the war-train. Fuck, too late we are. We always are. There's always been a skirmish here or a light conflict there. For us in the ANZAC countries it's mainly under the radar, unless you actually read anything but local papers or have a family / friend in the armed services. I mean at least the so-called Great Wars were for a reason that seems just. Now though, we fight for commerce and lifestyle. Well 'we' don't, but we like to live vicariously at a distance. All I ask is if we look past the fucking lip-service and rhetoric and we might just realise that those that gave their life gave it for a better world. I'm fairly sure the better world they would have hoped for didn't include more led-based-depleted-uranium reinforced body count.
All current war sentiment aside, I still ask "forget what?". We posture and pontificate over the day and the phrase yet we don't seem to fucking learn or more importantly act from it. Simple evolution might be nice. Lest we forget the price paid by the few so they don't have to pay it again. Pay the dead back by letting their gift mean something.
quote for the day:
"Never has there been a good war or a bad peace"
- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
posted by brent c. airey at 7:03 AM
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