Remembering

On November 11th when I was a kid, I stayed home from school. My parents felt the ceremonies and assemblies glorified war. My family is Mennonite, which means they are pacifists. My grandfather was a conscientious objector and had to labour in a work camp in northern Ontario for the duration of World War 2 since he refused to fight. My mom always wrote in my brother's birthday party invitations "Please no toys associated with war or violence" and then had to field phone calls from disgruntled mothers who didn't know what to buy for him. We were not allowed to watch violent shows or play violent video games (not too hard to enforce since we didn't have a TV).

My family was not fanatical about pacifism, nor was it something we really talked about much, but it's presence in our life was undeniable and it left its mark on me.

And that is why I have always felt discomfort on November 11. Not really knowing what to do with it, for most of my life, I've just tried to ignore it. I've never worn a poppy. I've never gone to a Remembrance Day ceremony. I've tried not to think about it too much because the horror of war feels like a weight too heavy to bear when I really contemplate it.

Last year, I decided that ignoring the day was not necessarily the best way to go and so on November 11, I looked up and read stories of people and nations who resisted Hitler non-violently. It was my own small act of observing the day in a way that I felt comfortable with. I found it to be very uplifting and inspiring.

So this year, I wanted to share my experience with my friends. A bunch of us gathered in my living room last night and listened to Martin Luther King on a crackly old record. We heard stories of a lady plumber who smuggled Jewish babies out of the ghettos in the bottom of her tool box and buried their names in a glass jar in her yard, and of entire nations who pulled together and managed to save nearly their whole Jewish population - without violence, and of Americans who travelled to Iraq at the height of the war to tell the people there that not all Americans view them as enemies and to try to offer them love, only to have Iraqis go far out of their way to help them when they were in desperate need. We remembered acts of bravery, of heroism, of love.

And we mourned. We mourned for the devastation of war, for the horror and loss of life, the destruction. We mourned because sometimes we feel helpless and frustrated and don't know what to do.

But we also hoped. We hoped for the day when all is redeemed. When swords will be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. When nation will not rise against nation nor train for war any longer.

And we were inspired. Inspired to try to love recklessly, to put others and their needs ahead of ourselves and our own safety, to value the sanctity of each and every life.

This is an observance of Remembrance Day that I can engage with. This is meaningful to me.
I don't want to undermine the sacrifice made by soldiers - it is very great indeed. But I find it important to remember the sacrifice of others as well. To honour ALL who stand up for what they believe in.
And I feel it's important to remember, on Remembrance Day and all days, that wars are not started to help people or save people or because the powers that be who make the decision to go into combat care about people. This is not to say that there are no soldiers who fight for these reasons (I know there are), but the actual decision to go to war is always about greed, power and/or money - EVEN in the case of World War 2, the "righteous" war. War is horrible and evil no matter how you slice it. I thank God for those (military and civilian alike) who shine His light into the dark depths of it. I thank God for those who care for and love people in the throes of its wretched destruction.

And I have to wonder (because I will always be a pacifist at heart).... what if we put as much energy and resources into training people in tactics and strategies of non-violent resistance as we do in training for violence and war? What would the world look like? Oh, idealistic heart of mine, what a day that would be!

I will leave you with some verses from Ephesians 6:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.