Remembrance Day - This Mennonite's Perspective
In high school, I wasn't sure what to do around Remembrance Day, given my pacifist convictions. Upon entering University, and entering the intellectual Anabaptist setting as I did, the alternatives were made pretty clear. For a $1 donation to the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) I was given a red pin, with the text, "To Remember is to Work for Peace". It was a statement that I agreed with, and still do, so I had no problem wearing the button. Some wore the button with their poppy, some, like me, wore it instead of a poppy.
Veterans
I have always been patriotic, and have been almost as interested in Canadian history as I have been of Mennonite history. Come Remembrance Day, I couldn't help but be sucked in by the tales of war told by our veterans. Listening to what the veterans said, their stories and their analysis of it all, I heard a common thread: "Never again!" These men know the cost of war better than anyone, more than I can learn from the Scriptures or by reading from textbooks. In many ways, they are bigger pacifists than I am.
War Memorials
Another thing that got me wondering this year was a visit to a particular war memorial. It wasn't one back home in Aylmer, or here in Waterloo, or one where I had some connection to the fallen, or even the pride-instilling national war memorial in Ottawa. It was in Munster, Germany. Partly wanting to take in the scenery and partly for the novelty of being there, I went for a random walk around the city, on a path that marked where the city walls once stood. I saw a monument of some kind, and as I approached it, I realized it was a war memorial. There were no distinct differences between the one in front of me and ones that I had seen all my life in Canada. It was clearer than ever, these soldiers died fighting bravely for God and country, left behind grieving mothers, wives and families as much as my Canadian departed soldiers had. If death is tragic when it's a soldier from a victorious army, it's even more tragic when it's a soldier from a losing army blindly following the commands of a dictator.
Poppies
Looking at the veterans selling poppies this year, I pictured them fighting, averting death, while their friends fell to the wayside. They were lucky enough to make it home, lucky enough to fight on the side of good. Remembrance Day isn't about glorifying war, and wearing a poppy doesn't label me as someone who does. I decided to wear a poppy this year, instead of the MCC button, for the first time since leaving high school, because the day is about remembering those who died at war, and the horrors endured by the ones who came back. Perhaps others saw it to mean something else, but this year, that was what seemed fitting to me.

   [ posted by William @ 10:20 PM ]