A Brief Comment by Doug Draper
“I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why – they can be counted on to tell us you our enemies are, but they’re never around to fight or to die.”
– from the Jackson Browne song ‘Lives in the Balance.
Through most of human history, it seems, there have always been men in the balance orchestrating one war after another. In every case, countless lives have been destroyed and where has it all gotten us as a species on this planet?
The First World War memorial in Welland, Ontario's Chippawa Park.
For the first time in my adult life, I bought a poppy last week off some nice friendly fellow who belongs to one of our local Legion halls but was not a World War II veteran. There are fewer and fewer Second World War veterans around and that, too, is sad because there is a great deal we can learn from their horrific experiences of war.
In my years as a journalist, I’ve interviewed many of these Second World War veterans for Remembrance Day articles and I was always impressed by their modesty. They did not ask or expect to be treated like someone special or a hero. They were more often interested in talking about the tragedy of war and how, in their view, war is represents the ultimate failure of our species to resolve our conflicts in more civilized ways.
I came of age in the last half of the 20th century – a century spilling over with amazing cultural and technological advances, but also the bloodiest century in human history. Tens of millions of people were slaughtered in the First and Second World Wars alone. And still it goes on and on. As the folksinger Pete Seeger asked in a song; ‘When will we ever learn?’
So I view this November 11 Remembrance Day or Veterans Day, as they call it across the border in the United States, as a time to reflect on the great losses and the tragedy of war, and not as a time to celebrate military, as some do. Let’s use the day instead to pray for the end of militarism and a new dawn of peace.
(Niagara At Large invites you toshare your views on this post below. Remember that we only post comments by people willing to share their real name.)
Niagara At Large 
This has got to be one of your most meaningful and poignant columns yet. Let’s hope your suggestion takes hold and as John Lennon and Yoko Ono sang, “Give Peace A Chance”.
However, when you read the Bible, it is one pointless war after the other. Will we ever learn?
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I agree with your article completely and also wish to see the need for militarism and have peace, and want to thank those young people that are still out trying to make a difference.
The veterans of WW2have been reduced in number because so many years have passed since they put their lives on the line to keep us safe. Years since their return home in which they continued to contribute to serve their country and the people living in it, making it the great country that it is.
Those WW2 veterans have been followed by other veterans of other wars, who also stood up and joined our armed forces to continue in the steps their fellow veterans trod.
Remember also the men and women who served since WW2 and are continuing to fight to keep North America the free countries they are. Canadian Armed Forces have not only fought in Korea and Afghanistan, but also in conflicts and peacekeeping missions worldwide.
Thank You
Joy Russell
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Carl Sagan said it best:
Look at that dot, earth.That’s home. On it everyone you love,everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human who ever was, lived out their lives. All of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every king and peasant, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every young couple in love, every mother and father, child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar” and “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in human history lived there…on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
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“War is over if you want it” John Lennon
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