Shut Up And Listen 138 Remembrance Day At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we will be silent in remembrance of those who gave their lives fighting for their country here in Canada and I don’t know how to feel about it. You see, I’m a pacifist and am strongly opposed to solving problems through violence and am thus opposed to war. But I still want to recognise that people have sacrificed their lives, their health, their families and more than I’ll probably ever be asked to give up in defence of their fellow humans. Is there a way to reconcile the two? I’m stuck asking myself that every year around now. Part of me wants to just call them idealistic morons who fell for simplistic propaganda about the “glories of fighting for one’s country” as part of me sees it like that (especially when speaking of World War I). But then another part looks back at World War II and sees that well, something had to be done and sadly, war seemed to be the only way to get the job done. I suppose it’s just a matter of looking at it the way you want to see it. By remembering those who died in war are we glorifying it or condemning the fact that those people had to die? I kind of see it as a day where I remember the incredible loss of life that happens because people are fucking stupid beings and those in charge often have little or no regard for those they rule over. Look at the past one hundred years and think about all the needless loss of life because of ignorance, fear, hate, and other fucking dumb reasons. Let’s see, we had World War I, which was over, what? An ambassador being shot? Trade problems? Then we had World War II where because Germany got fucked over at the end of World War I, a fucking madman was allowed to take charge and push through his message of world domination and the extinction of the Jewish people. There was the Korean War, which was about communism or something. Vietnam, which was about communism again, except this time America actually lost. There was the Gulf War and the recent one in Iraq over oil, pretty much. Or the wars on Eastern Europe over the fact that the people down the road speak a slightly different dialect of the same language or pray to a god that isn’t exactly the same one “we” do. All the people killed in the Soviet Union under “communism” mainly because it became this big pissing match between the USSR and USA. The people who have died in China after Mao took power and continue to die, while the rest of the world turns a blind eye because China is on the security council and offer many trade opportunities. The people who died during the terrorist attacks on the US and then in their retaliation in Afghanistan over basically, an “us versus them” mentality. And of course, the people who have died and continue to die in Israel just because way back when some body killed someone else there and it just kept getting bigger. Not to mention all the people around the world killed by family members, random strangers, other gangs and psychopaths. And that’s just the shit I can remember. I guess that’s what Remembrance Day is all about for me: stupid fucking people killing innocent people over the dumbest fucking reasons you can think of. What pisses me off though is a letter I read in the paper yesterday where this asshole had the fucking gall to speak of Remembrance Day and Canada’s lack of involvement in Iraq in the same breath. Yes, he used a day to remember people who died during wars (meaning, looking back at it and thinking it sucks) as an excuse for why we should send more young people halfway across the world to die for dumb fucking reasons. That pisses me off. I’m all in favour of expressing your opinions on stuff like Iraq, but there are some arguments you shouldn’t make for it and bringing to mind a day devoted to remembering guys in their late teens and early twenties who were mowed down by machine guns and bombed in muddy trenches isn’t one of them. On Tuesday, I’ll wear my poppy, and I’ll stand silently at 11 am and I’m going to hope that people finally wake up and realise that we only get one shot at this world and we should stop killing each other over trivial shit that doesn’t really matter.