More than 2 minutes of silence
Thursday, November 11, 2010 In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
Some people remember in silence. They stop what they are doing at 11:11am to pause and reflect. To be thankful for the sacrifices of the women and men who fought for our freedom. While I have nothing against a minute or two of silence at 11:11am, and while I generally do participate in the quiet, it feels symbolically fake to me. I don't appreciate those sacrifices more by being quiet. I appreciate them more by telling stories, visiting museums, and speaking out for the rights of veterans, child soldiers, prisoners of war and innocent victims.
I remember...
- By visiting the War Museum with my children, not necessarily on November 11 (too many crowds), but at a time when I feel they are ready to listen and to absorb.
- By stopping at monuments, taking the time to learn and write about the stories behind them when I get back home, and talking to people about the sacrifices others had to make.
- By visiting places where horrors took place because the pain of seeing is second only to the danger of not knowing or not believing.
- By thinking about the union of my French mother-in-law and German father-in-law who married not long after such a union would have been unspeakable.
- By reflecting on my father-in-law's early childhood and the physical repercussions he still carries from a childhood in Germany during World War II when they never had enough to eat.
- By remembering my grandfather who missed much of his children's early childhood while in Europe fighting in World War II.
- By remembering my great uncle who died at sea in World War II and my great aunt, also a veteran, who went blind when he never returned.
- By remembering our shock when a friend who thought he was just getting a free education (I mean Canada would never go to war, right?) got shipped off to the Gulf War.
- By expressing disgust at the Harper government's changes to Veteran pensions and disability benefits, which have both decreased the benefits and made it more difficult to obtain them (how is that respecting our veterans?).
- By acknowledging that war is not a thing of the past and that there are still many wars being fought in many countries around the world that are devastating many lives.
Two minutes of silence is nice. It is respectful. It is good. But being unsilent on these issues is even more important. There are so many victims, past, present and future. Our silence won't change that, but our voices, our votes, and our actions may.
Image credit: _Skender_ on flickr
Reader Comments (12)
We remember many times each year, too. Reid knows to keep the military in her memory. I don't object to a single day of focus but I worry that some people remember only that day. I didn't put a poppy twibbon on my Twitter avatar because I couldn't imagine declaring that I'm stopping remembering by taking it off.
Beautifully written! I'm glad to read a post where someone acknowledged Veterans' Day. I too like to visit war museums (most of them have been in Germany). My husband's family lives in Germany while he moved here to the US to marry me. It's hard to go into these museums and to see the suffering come to life, but it's also good to learn about history. History repeats itself. Growing up my husband (and all his peers) were overburden with WWII and I think that has [perhaps] made them apathetic toward what happened during WWI (ending on 11/11/18 @11:11 am) and WWII. It can be a fine line of teaching history.
Your husband's family has a lot of European family history. Do any still live in Germany or France? Great story about your in-laws and best wishes to them. My husband's grandfather fought in WWII and was captured by the Russians near the end of the war (which meant that his captivity wasn't as severe). If he were alive, I don't think he would approve of his grandson marrying an American. History is the most interesting when you look at social perspective, my opinion. Thanks again for the post and being so reflective about war, its effects on people and countries, and veterans.
Rebecca B:
We live in Canada, but I met my husband in Europe (16 years ago) and we recently spent the summer in Berlin (lots of posts about it on the blog).
go read an account of the very first silence after the armistice, in London, and you might realise that silence does have its place in remembrance and also in activism. there's a lot more to raising consciousness than mere decibels
I know that it has a place, but I get annoyed by people who are all self-righteous about their 2 minutes of silence at 11:00am, but then do nothing else the rest of the year. Those few moments of silence can be good, as I said in my post. But they are not a solution.
Awesome! I'll have to look at the posts. I love Germany and also met my husband there (I was studying abroad). Sprichst du Deutsch?
Interesting post.
I'm very conflicted about how to celebrate Remembrance Day with my kids. They have great-great uncles who fought in WW1; one of them was blinded in the trenches and came back to Canada to help found the CNIB. However, I feel that Remembrance Day has become politicized in ways that rub me the wrong way. For instance, instead of being about remembering the war dead, it's often talked about in terms of men and women who gave their lives in the name of "freedom." Unfortunately, many wars have nothing to do with freedom (WW 1 is arguably one of them, Afghanistan another), and everything to do with a political system that still believes it is OK to send men and women off to kill be be killed. We tell our children to use our words, yet our politicians continue to countenance the use of guns to solve conflicts. What is lacking in Remembrance Day ceremonies today is an emphasis on peace. So this November 11 I took then opportunity to tell my children about the interesting history of the white poppy, and how there are people who are trying to prevent it even from being made available as an alternative—or a complement—to the red poppy. (And these are the same people who talk about the value of fighting for "freedom.")
Oops, that should be "we teach our children to use *their* words."
Thank you for saying this. I live in Britain and cannot wear a poppy here because of the idea that it is remembering the "sacrifice of our boys" and "defeating Hitler" etc. One day people will go back to the idea that poppies and commemorating Armistice is actually about how terrible war is. Full Stop.
I cannot wear a poppy when people associate it with the so-called justified killing of my husband's relatives and countrymen, who I believe were often just as much victims if not more so.
My father in law had a similar experience to yours, also in Germany. My father in law had a father who volunteered early on in the war and then spent 5 years in a gulag afterward.....on the other side my mother in law's father was part Jew and therefore was forced labour near Auschwitz.
Bringing about a marriage between a woman with Jewish ancestry and the son of someone who caught themselves up in Hitler's cause early on was interesting you can imagine!!
If you can find it have a listen to a song by Robb Johnson "I closed my eyes", an exceptionally moving song about his conversations with his father about WW2.
I'll continue with the red for this reason: donations to the poppy campaign are mainly used to fund programs for senior veterans, programs that offer financial assistance to veterans who are disabled or otherwise in need. It also finances educational programs for Canadian youth and additional campaign funds go to hospitals and research institutions in the form of grants.
While I like the ideals of a white poppy, I cannot find information as to how these poppy sales have a wider purpose than as a fundraiser for those organizations, some of which I don't fully agree with. [If you've more information about the fundraising purposes of the white poppy, I'd appreciate it, because the core ideal is nice, but it's too politicized for me.]
I also believe it is my choice whether or not attach "freedom" to my personal Remembrance; it's about how I remember, and my observance is completely in line with what I believe. No politician or organization can change that, and I personally believe that there has never been a war that was about "freedom"... that's a phrase that gets tossed around after the decision to start war, as a way to justify war.
I remember when Harper ran on the platform of supporting the troops and their families. Such a liar. We must always remember. Not just on November 11th.