Tuesday, November 11, 2008

What is it good for? A few things, actually

I'm no expert on the wars that plague our past and present, but today I wonder what is going through people's mind at home and during ceremonies around the globe. I am reminded of a quote from a movie called History Boys whereby a professor in the movie says, "The best way to forget something is to commemorate it." I wonder if there is some truth to this.. What do do people think about for that few moments of silence when we 'remember'? Lost family members? Brave soldiers currently engaged in war? Are we grateful for what we have today? I try to be... But with what little I know about past and current wars I do not simply remember THAT we went to war. I think about WHY we went to war and although the intentions were complex, they were not always honourable. In fact, there were and continue to be instances where soldiers have died without even knowing on a grander scale what they were fighting for. Is it enough to say that we are fighting for our families fellow citizens? Or is it clear to most that the biggest war of all is over wealth and ideas? Do people recall that what largely saved us from the economic and social woes of the Great Depression was in fact the economic growth and social cohesion generated by World War II and all the death and destruction that came along with it? My intent is not to be naive or to berate those that have been deeply affected by war. Your emotions and your sentiments are warranted and real. My intent is to make sure that in addition to remembering those who fought valiantly, we also try to learn from past experience, not just the winners' past experience but the losers as well because after all, it is the actions of both that results in an escalating conflict. Those who forget their past are condemned to repeat it. We don't have to be experts on the history of war, but some knowledge could make a big difference.

3 comments:

spineless liberal said...

No disrespect meant to my fellow blogger, but keep the damn text the same I cant even read this on my screen.

Gordon said...

Let me know if that is legible .. thanks for the heads up..I couldn't tell from my screen

Gordon said...

I think the problem was that I wrote it in Word 2008 for Mac and then just cut and pasted it into the message box on the blog site.. it probably didn't recognize the text format, but as I said before, there is no way for me to tell from my computed because of course it is a mac and does recognize it.. I could go to a windows computer to check the site from there, or you could just respond and let me know if you can read it