Remembrance Day (Canada)
November 11

To celebrate Remembrance Day is a duty of the heart and a challenge to the mind. In what way shall we remember those who died in the battles that stain the history of every nation?

Let us open our eyes. Were soldiers killing and being killed for their commitment to some radiant ideal? How many of them believed in the cause for which they were made to fight? How many were caught in a web of lies and confusion -- their pastors telling them that it is “sweet and glorious to die for one’s Fatherland,” the recruiting officers persuading them that enlistment is a quick and safe way to get an education? Were they heroes for a freely chosen cause or victims of exploitation? In every war it is the poor who fight, and the rich who win.

To remember the slain with “ra-ra” patriotism would only perpetuate the senseless slaughter. On every Remembrance Day, let us recall the victims of war -- soldiers and civilians alike -- with deep repentance, honor them by a change of heart. Let us affirm that a single young life sacrificed to any ideology is one too many and turn our grief into a firm commitment to work for peace.

Our attitude towards veterans is a good starting point for putting this commitment into practice. They are the real heroes. Their bodies were shattered, yet they had the courage to rebuild their lives as best they could. It is for this courage that we honor them. They know the horror and the insanity of war from bloody experience and can teach us. Veterans for Peace are pioneers in the search for a peaceful world.

In contemporary warfare, the number of civilians killed is many times that of soldiers killed in the killing. A high percentage among civilian casualties are children. Who would believe that between 1986 and 1996 alone, well over 300,000 children were involuntarily conscripted to fight in adult wars? And who can fully comprehend and chronicle the psychological damage inflicted by war on children everywhere, even in non-combatant countries?

These are the things we need to remember. Maybe from now on, Remembrance Day should be associated with words like “landmines” and with images like that of a little girl without arms. For the sake of our children and children’s children, let us remember.

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