Amid war, there is goodness at work
It has been many a moon since the day the army descended upon Meadowville.
With jeeps and other vehicles going up and down the roads, we children were all excited.
With soldiers around and resting under our trees, and Mum bringing them goodies to eat, it was a fascinating time.
And day after day we watched the Hudsons and Ansons ying overhead.
There was the crash into Dalhousie Mountain, killing all on board, that jarred our youthful exuberance.
We were, however, happy to visit the one that landed in a pasture not far away. We actually were allowed to get into it and talk with those keeping watch.
The people of the community, and country, were knitting socks and mittens, with thumb and a nger for pulling the trigger, and sending boxes of all kinds of things to our people overseas. We even had a Junior Red Cross in school where we were encouraged to buy savings stamps to support the cause.
It was in the evenings, as our parents listened to the news, that we caught their concern, and knew that war was not fun and games.
The death of a young male teacher, who left to join the air force at Christmas and never came back, sobered us. But we were kids and played our war games with abandon. Each November 11 we gather to remember. We remember those killed in battle.
“They shall grow not old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them or the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”
We remember those in all conflicts that are alive in our memories. We remember those who were injured in body and mind, and all who gave their youth to uphold the values that nourish us and make our common life possible.
I’ve written all this in previous years, but there is something very special about Remembrance Day.
And this year has an added edge as we mark one hundred years from the end of the First World War.
War, at least for the last 5,000 years of patriarchy, has been the environment in which most of the world has lived.
All of the major religions of our time were hewn out of a violence that was never far o .
Perhaps no conflict is totally pure, but some lean toward upholding the noble virtues of humanity while other are fought for power and greed, often in the name of religion.
Just as we can’t let the world walk all over us as individuals, neither can we as nations allow those who want to destroy us and our way of life have their way.
For a culture to survive and grow we need to protect ourselves from the forces that would violate our way of life.
Within our countries we need a police force to protect us from those who would subvert our way of life. Internationally we need a military to keep us secure.
I fear our police are not honoured to the extent of the military, but as we have recently witnessed in Moncton and Fredericton, they, too, put their lives on the line to uphold the values of our society.
The United Nations struggles but we have not yet come to the place where “ ey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears in pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own g trees, and no one shall make them afraid” (Micah 4:3b-4).
What a great vision, which comes from 2,500 years ago. We have not arrived but we need a light beckoning us forward. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV).
Today we are about to celebrate the 70th anniversary of “ e Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” It is the Micah quote, and countless visions since, writ large and in detail for our contemporary world.
e United Nations adopted it on Dec. 10, 1948.
It is often ignored but it stands before us as a contemporary vision urging us on to a more just and peaceful world.
As we gather around our Cenotaphs remembering the dark reality of war and its anguished toll on humanity, know also that there is goodness at work.
There are many pursuing worthy ideals.
“ e goal may ever shine afar, the will to win it makes us free.”