lRookiel said:
I just had a chat with one of my friends and he thinks that people are idiots for making war happen in the first place, so he's not going to honour Humanity's mistakes.
As someone who always advocates peace: Your friend is a moronic douchebag.
Let me explain why: Remembrance day isn't celebrating war. It's not celebrating the fact that thousands upon thousands of men and women and civilians have died in war. It's not honouring 'humanity's mistakes'. It's REMEMBERING (Go figure) those who have died in the name of freedom. Who fought against tyranny, who fought for the innocent, and who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
The phrase 'Lest we forget' is used often around this time, and the reason is twofold: So that we never forget those few that laid down their lives for the many. And so that we can work toward a future where such a terrible sacrifice never has to be made again.
I've met a lot of veterans, and none of them enjoyed war. None of them WANT war. ALL of them want
peace.
My Grandfather fought for the dutch underground. He hid many many Jews from the Nazis, and helped supply the allied soldiers and other underground movements when they were fighting to get into in Holland. He passed away last year, but he's who I'll be remembering most today.
If you met him, you woulnd't think he could kill a fly, let alone Nazi soldiers.
But he did. Not because he liked war, or killing. But because he knew that something greater was at stake there. He watched his uncle and brother be shot on his front lawn by the Nazis. Watched Jewish neighbours be carried off. He was a man who loved peace, but knew that inaction would not help there.
So he acted, and he's a damn hero to me, and the hundreds of Jewish families he effected, and to the allied solders and underground resistance movements he helped supply. He never wanted a medal, never wanted praise, never wanted anything for it. He did it, because it was the right thing to do.
And people like your friend, who live in this sheltered, protected suburbian bubble, and have no concept or grasp of what these people, past AND present, went/go through, can sit in their lazy-boys and spout ignorant, idiotic rhetoric about 'Not wanting to celebrate humanity's mistakes' BECAUSE men and women like my Grandfather stood up and took the burden for those who couldn't.
If their attitude wasn't so disgusting, the irony would be delicious.
If people don't WANT to celebrate, then you can't make them. And I won't try and force them. But if anyone...ANYONE tells me that it's a celebration of war, or 'humanity's mistakes', then I'll put them in their place. Be apathetic if you want, but leave your ignorance and coffee-shop rhetoric out of my Remembrance Day.
