Thoughts On Remembrance Day

Thoughts On Remembrance Day

The picture above was taken a little over to years ago. I was visiting the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, MB. This is a chalk board that was discovered in an old Winnipeg school and then moved to the museum. It's evidence of something that likely wasn't unusual at that extraordinary time. And that's a class of school children raising money to buy bombs for the war effort. It's something that has stuck with me ever since.

What a horrible thought it is for me to think that school kids would have to think about war and bombs and killing. How different it is from kids raising money for a new playground or for a local charity. In recent times there have been heart warming stories of school children doing what they can to raise money to help the victims of hurricaines, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. What a time it must have been to have kids raising money to buy bombs. And it being not only accepted by society, but encouraged.

Yet that's how it was during WWII. I remember talking with my Dad a few days after our visit to the museum. And he was telling me about that time. His thoughts were based on what he'd heard from his parents, aunts, uncles, and people who'd lived through that time. It was a time where the war touched the lives of almost everyone in this country and everyone thought about it. There was a sense of solidarity and commitment to a common cause, that being to survive and end the war, across the country that we can hardly fathom today. And so yes, it was a time when school children would think about what they could do to help win the war. Everyone tried to do something that they thought could help.

Over the course of that discussion my Dad told me about one of my great uncles. He drove a supply truck during WWII. When he was in the field he'd sleep under his truck so that he could be up and driving to where he needed to be as soon as he was called upon. He'd often drive through areas where fighting had just occurred and the dying and wounded were still on the ground.

After the war he came home. He went back to his farm and his family. In many ways he lived a happy and productive life. He had children and grandchildren whom he loved and who loved him. But the war had an effect on him. He didn't like to talk about the war. And there were times when he'd get so worked up and feel so distressed, that the only way he could calm himself down and start to feel better was to go out into the garage and crawl underneath the truck. Again a powerful image for me. A grown man crawling under a truck, driven there by the horrible experiences and memories of war. And this is someone who didn't fight on the frontlines. It's also someone who I know was loved, and is well remembered in my family. 

So as Remembrance Day rolls around each year I have these two things that I think about. Young Canadian children raising money to buy bombs. And regular people returning from their military service forever tainted by war, in particular my great uncle.

I also think of my own views on pacifism. I also think of pacifists I know who have a rather negative view toward Remembrance Day. And I try to come to terms with my own thoughts and feelings.

For me, Remembrance is a day to think about how horrible war is. It's important for me to remember that there was a time when children in this country had bake sales to buy bombs to be dropped on other human beings. It's also important to remember those who went and experienced war first hand. The impact that had on them. I don't see Remembrance Day as a day to declare them as heroes as much as it is to stand in solidarity with people who have experienced something that no one should have to experience. To let them know that they aren't forgotten and that they are loved.

The catch phrases of "never again" and "may we never forget" couldn't be more appropriate. For me Remebrance Day reminds me why I should be angry about war and long for a day when society no longer tolerates it. And at the same time there's an irony to all this, as we are currently involved in the war in Afghanistan. A war that I, like many Canadians, rarely think about.