In
a few days we'll celebrate Veterans' Day. It's only been “Veterans'
Day” since 1954. It is still observed in other countries under its
old names: Armistice or Remembrance Day. The observance began in the
early 1900's – 1918 to be exact. On the 11th day of
the 11th month at the 11th hour,
hostilities of the major players along the Western Front in the First
World War would cease. This is the beginning of observing that day
for veterans; for no more war.
At
the end of World War 1, the cost of the war in terms of life and
destruction was so huge, most who participated in that war could not
stomach the thought that the war had accomplished nothing –
mind you, in its immediate aftermath, there was no way a sane person
could rationalize the cost of that war, when gaining mere feet at a
cost of a thousand – or many thousands of lives was too much to
bear. It was called “The War To End All Wars.” Those who lived
it, thought it could not be too much to ask for mankind to avoid such
horrific butchery of the human species ever again.
With
astonishing rapidity, a small group of madmen led the world into a
second horrific war, which was to be called World War II, proving
that insanity isn't solely invested in a single generation. Humans
who aren't capable of engaging with other humans who do not look like
them, cannot be trusted to do the right thing. They are too shallow
and too fearful – for it is fear that causes a lack of engagement
on the political stage – and do not have the intelligence to
comprehend and appreciate plurality. In their feckless claims to
power they over-promise and under-deliver because they have no
substance – no matter how violent and large their army, in a
generation they are gone.
We
know now, without a shadow of a doubt that a similar war – with
more modern weapons – is not a distant possibility. The Russians
have huge stockpile of nuclear weapons as does the US and other
countries a little less. But we all know that there are only a couple
of buttons that can make these monsters go boom. Whether or not you
think of it daily, I would believe that everyone capable of reading
these words would never want to see even the smallest of those
weapons unleashed. And the truth is, even if only one is
unleashed, it will be followed by many, many others and life on earth
will be over.
We
cannot be the generation that acts so recklessly. I am fraught with
fear over the lack of common sense in our leadership today - I am
filled with fear at the rhetoric and lack of decorum and common
sense. I am maddened by the name calling and the dehumanizing of
people who don't quite match the white man. History shows us that all
of this was done before and directly created and set the stage for
WWII. We cannot go down that path once again, because the road is far
too dark and the unseen is all too certain. The substance and essence
of all living generations being vaporized over a dispute, and
assuredly a petty dispute compared to what follows, is too much to
bear.
It
will be on our watch. Veterans Day, by any name, will be worthless.
All of human kind's efforts destroyed by only ego. And in this
moment, consider that we have two observances ahead - two traditions
– that we must consider.
In
the first, we must go to the polls and vote on November 6th - and we
must vote for integrity and competence - for honest and not name
calling - for truth and not for falsely concocted crises at our
borders or in our heartland. We cannot listen to the money changers
and the hopelessly rich. Leaving the booth, we must be able to look
the old woman in the eye, the drug addicted, the homeless, the
jobless and the forlorn. We must hold our head high before
greed and injustice.
In
the second, on the 11th day of the 11th month, we do not need to show
up at parades or stand and salute the flag because those who march in
the parade and the ones whole enough to march. There are many shadows
behind those marchers. The ones who didn't come back; the ones who
cannot leave their sick bed. The cost of war - ANY WAR - should be
enough for us to never declare war. It is a horrid shame that a
people, a democracy, should ever go to war, let alone be the
aggressor. As a people, we have no quarrel with other peoples. The
quarrel is created to sell more bombs and shoot more missiles and
charge more dollars. A democracy should only defend it's borders, it
should never be the invader.
This
is time for sobriety. To consider who we are as a people as well as
who we are not. Let us give up the vice of fear, decide as a majority
that fairness and hope, not profit should be our diplomacy. That
clinging fiercely to the Old motto of our country, "Out of many,
One." There is a light to be held in the darkness. Our lives and
the lives of the children are in the balance this year as never
before.
We
can be Americans - neither Republican or Democrat, neither Christian
nor Hindu; neither brown nor black nor white nor in between.
Honestly, between you and I and that stockpile of atomic weapons, it
is our world to make better or make go away. And it is past
time to act as this is the truth.
Sorry
this isn't very gardenry. I'll be back on topic in a short hitch.
Meanwhile, go vote.
david
