Another Kind Of Remembrance
Last week I posted a tribute to those who have given their lives for a better world. I thought long and hard about what words I would use because the last thing I wanted to do was glorify wars, or even the participation in them. There is no glory in war. Bravery, yes. Glory, no.
The 11th of November is specifically set aside to remember the members of the armed forces who died in the line of duty. And I am grateful to those members of the armed forces whose sacrifice means I live in relative freedom and peace. However, today I am thinking of all the other people whose lives were cut short as a consequence of war.
Yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of the day that Lieutenant William Calley, Junior faced a court martial for directing his platoon in the massacre of at least 400 unarmed peasants in the Vietnamese village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. Although it was an infamous event, what do I really know about those people who were killed? Practically nothing. Were they 'innocent'? I don't know. But it seems likely that they were ordinary people just trying to live their lives as best they could, caring for their children and their elderly. More concerned with day to day survival than with any political ideology. Just trying to survive a war they probably didn't want, much less need. Today I am remembering them.
[image error]
This isn't about politics. It's irrelevant which 'side' did the killing, or who was fighting for freedom and who were the oppressors. It's not about patriotism, or any ideology. It's about remembering the individual people in this picture, and millions of other individuals, who did not give their lives in war, but had them taken.
