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Commemorating the Fallen
Actor, Sam Neil, was recently quoted as saying in relation to the ANZAC centennial: “I hate militarism, loathe nationalism but honour those who served [in World War I].” (“The Dominion Post, May 2, 2015)
Back when I was a teenager (either in or not long out of high school) I got involved in a string of letters to the Editor of the Marlborough Express about war.
To one of mine, the Editor gave the headline of “Teenagers and War”. This is an extract from the text of the published letter:
“... the older generation have lost charity and are incapable of forgiving [their former enemies]. They bear grudges that will cause further wars. The younger generation still knows charity but perhaps before the time their influence affects world affairs the older generation will have given them a war in which to give their lives and lose charity. [A year or so after I wrote this, the US sent troops to Vietnam.]
"True, we [teenagers] do not know the horrors of war as they [the older generation] do but if they do not forgive those whom they fought against they will teach us [the horrors of war] as vividly as they know them.
“We hear such pretentious talk about the duty of adults to their children in leaving a suitable world for them. It is about time they [the older generation] started fulfilling their duty by giving us an inheritance of peace. We do not vote for the men who will cause buttons to be pressed which will result in the murder of millions of us [by nukes], we will only [end up] fight[ing] the war that they will give us...
“My generation is, above all, the insecure one...
“I constantly turn to God, in my own way, and pray that they [the older generation] will not again bring the horror of war to the world before we [teenagers] can prove our value as its leaders.”
Now, in old age, it seems to me that both generations failed. It’s as if wars (large or small) and human nature go hand in hand
In my teenage years I had so much hope and thought I had answers. Now, I don’t have any message that I think world leaders will listen to. I can only believe in some higher purpose and wait and see what comes out of wars in the remainder of my lifetime.
Back when I was a teenager (either in or not long out of high school) I got involved in a string of letters to the Editor of the Marlborough Express about war.
To one of mine, the Editor gave the headline of “Teenagers and War”. This is an extract from the text of the published letter:
“... the older generation have lost charity and are incapable of forgiving [their former enemies]. They bear grudges that will cause further wars. The younger generation still knows charity but perhaps before the time their influence affects world affairs the older generation will have given them a war in which to give their lives and lose charity. [A year or so after I wrote this, the US sent troops to Vietnam.]
"True, we [teenagers] do not know the horrors of war as they [the older generation] do but if they do not forgive those whom they fought against they will teach us [the horrors of war] as vividly as they know them.
“We hear such pretentious talk about the duty of adults to their children in leaving a suitable world for them. It is about time they [the older generation] started fulfilling their duty by giving us an inheritance of peace. We do not vote for the men who will cause buttons to be pressed which will result in the murder of millions of us [by nukes], we will only [end up] fight[ing] the war that they will give us...
“My generation is, above all, the insecure one...
“I constantly turn to God, in my own way, and pray that they [the older generation] will not again bring the horror of war to the world before we [teenagers] can prove our value as its leaders.”
Now, in old age, it seems to me that both generations failed. It’s as if wars (large or small) and human nature go hand in hand
In my teenage years I had so much hope and thought I had answers. Now, I don’t have any message that I think world leaders will listen to. I can only believe in some higher purpose and wait and see what comes out of wars in the remainder of my lifetime.
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