Remembrance Day makes you think.
Of all human endeavours, war is the most troubling, and the most paradoxical. We despise the death and destruction that are caused by it; we celebrate the heroism and self-sacrifice that arise out of it.
Pundits often say that the victors get to write the history books, and there is some truth in that. The terrible actions of the Axis powers: the invasion of Poland, the bombardment of civilians in Britain, the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Long March, the Holocaust, all are the stuff of countless documentaries, books and films with which Canadians, at least of a certain age, are familiar. The fire bombing of Dresden, Germany, however, in February of 1945 which incinerated an estimated 40,000 civilians in three days, is generally ignored by most citizens of the formerly Allied nations or recorded as a justifiable act by Allied historians, and the atomic bomb attacks on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused the death of 200,000 more, are commonly excused as being "necessary." After all, they started it.
I had four uncles who flew in World War II as either bomber pilots or navigators. All miraculously survived countless sorties over Germany. They flew repeated missions into ground and fighter aircraft fire that tore apart their planes and killed their crew members. Their bravery was extraordinary; none actually expected to live through it. Their superiors told them they were targeting military installations, industrial complexes, and suppliers of the German war machine, not people, not women, not children. They tried to believe it.
I came to Canada 40 years ago from Illinois to avoid fighting in a war started for vague reasons by men with little understanding of the people I was supposed to travel 10,000 miles to kill. I was bothered however by the efficiency of my draft board; I knew that they would fill the quota of Rock Island County draftees that month, with me or without me. There is a song called "Veterans' Day" by Tom Russell. It's about Jimmy McGrew, a soldier missing in action in Viet Nam. The chorus goes: "It's Veterans' Day, and the skies are grey/ Leave your uniforms home 'cause there ain't gonna be a parade/But we'll lift up a glass to the ones who didn't make it through/ And put a light in the window tonight for Jimmy McGrew."
I didn't sleep all that well a week ago Tuesday. At about 1:30 in the morning I got up without waking my wife and put a light in one of our windows, not for a fictitious Jimmy McGrew, but for some guy from Rock Island County whose name I will never know.
Remembrance Day makes you think.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A Silver Lining?
I really don't like writing about "silver linings." I much prefer to write a lengthy diatribe describing in overly ripe language one or more of the dark, weighty, rain-filled clouds hanging over us: economic collapse, corporate greed, George Bush or any one of the numerous human frailties that we can so readily observe in society. So many things exist that can provoke me into a lengthy rant.
So when I say that there may be a silver lining to the economic disaster generated by greedy corporate gamblers on Wall Street, I do it reluctantly, especially since the avarice displayed by those soulless sociopaths will indubitably result in the suffering and death of thousands of people in the Third World who as part of the "New World Order" either have come to rely on foreign aid or have been forced to turn their meager self-sustaining farms into producers of cash crops which now no one will buy.
The silver lining may be, however, that we will see an end to the kind of thinking that has manipulated the lives of millions of the poor world-wide. Perhaps as well we will see the end of the idea that those in the G7 countries know what is best, that their vision of a world united under some sort of free-trade, unregulated, corporate hegemony is not in fact the way to universal prosperity, but only another attempt by a few to control and profit from the majority.
In addition, North Americans may be forced to think on a smaller, more local, more affordable, more sustainable scale. Smaller cars, smaller houses, more careful choices and greater appreciation for what we have may be the result of many people losing their big cars, big houses and high paying jobs, though as always the people hurt the most will in fact not be the very wealthy but those who can least afford it.
In the mean time, I would encourage everyone to join me in a rant of your own choice. Your displeasure may have an effect if it is loud enough to be heard by the movers and shakers of society, and if not, well, at least it feels good.
So when I say that there may be a silver lining to the economic disaster generated by greedy corporate gamblers on Wall Street, I do it reluctantly, especially since the avarice displayed by those soulless sociopaths will indubitably result in the suffering and death of thousands of people in the Third World who as part of the "New World Order" either have come to rely on foreign aid or have been forced to turn their meager self-sustaining farms into producers of cash crops which now no one will buy.
The silver lining may be, however, that we will see an end to the kind of thinking that has manipulated the lives of millions of the poor world-wide. Perhaps as well we will see the end of the idea that those in the G7 countries know what is best, that their vision of a world united under some sort of free-trade, unregulated, corporate hegemony is not in fact the way to universal prosperity, but only another attempt by a few to control and profit from the majority.
In addition, North Americans may be forced to think on a smaller, more local, more affordable, more sustainable scale. Smaller cars, smaller houses, more careful choices and greater appreciation for what we have may be the result of many people losing their big cars, big houses and high paying jobs, though as always the people hurt the most will in fact not be the very wealthy but those who can least afford it.
In the mean time, I would encourage everyone to join me in a rant of your own choice. Your displeasure may have an effect if it is loud enough to be heard by the movers and shakers of society, and if not, well, at least it feels good.
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