Address given at the
Remembrance Day Service
held on November 11, 2009
by Rev. Bruce Cook
"For war is hell and those who institute
it are criminals."
So wrote Siegfried Sassoon, a soldier-poet from the First World War. I’m old
school so I haven’t come today with a power point presentation augmented with
music ( though I did think about calling Mr. McConnell
late last night to see what we could come up with). Instead, I stand before you
armed with some poetry, a quote or two and a heart and mind filled with stories
garnered over a lifetime of listening.
It has been my privilege to hear, time and again, the stories of my father’s
wartime experiences as part of the Canadian 3rd Division who were the
Liberators of Holland. I’ve met and been befriended by a score of veterans and
soldier’s widows. As well as knowing one of the last survivors of the bloody
battle of Beaumont Hamill ( Paschendale) in the First World War, I have sat
around a living room with a dozen or so women who were mothers of young men and
women about your age during WWII. I listened to their tearful recounting of the
dark days of occupation first as the Nazi Army took Hungary, and then as the
Red Army brutalized them again as its liberators.
War is hell.
How many of you wear poppies? ... Which side do you wear them on? ... Indeed,
on the left hand side, nearest your heart. You see war is a matter of the
heart.
While wars are waged, usually, by Powers desiring more power, or by the
Privileged to keep their privilege, or sometimes by those with little or no
power seeking at least some, the fight is carried by individuals with
names and families and hopes and dreams and lives to be lived. No one I’ve ever
met who has served in any of the wars of the last century or the conflicts at
the beginning of this one, would desire that their children go to war. ... But
they all readily admit that going to war changed their lives. War quickly
becomes a matter of the heart: it affects the heart and soul of a nation; it
affects the heart and soul of a people; and it affects the hearts and souls of
the combatants and all whom they hold dear.
Siegfried Sassoon writes in another poem,
to the youth of this generation:
"Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go."
How many of you have seen or played any of the Call of Duty video
war games ? A review of the latest in the series, Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare says, "It simulates modern warfare so well it
brings ( to life ) all the exciting s tanding around and waiting that comes with serving in the
actual military."
"It simulates ... so well."
Well, actually, NO.
It cannot and does not simulate the sheer terror of a bombardment, nor the
smells of war: At Calais the stench of dying and decaying animal and human flesh
alike, mixed with cordite and sewage has stayed fixed in my father’s nostrils
for 65 years; It cannot or at least does not simulate the real sounds of the
battlefield... the sounds of your life long friend’s last breath; It cannot or
at least does not simulate the sights of the battlefield either... the look of
that same friend when he knows it is you beside him as he dies. NOR the look of
the other, the enemy, whose life you have just taken in close quarter
combat.
And it cannot simulate the last thoughts of men for their mothers, their
fathers, their wives, their children as they throw themselves in harm’s way.
War is hell. It is not a game.
No game can simulate grief. Nor has any game come close to duplicating the
agony of starvation, or forced marches on swollen, frost bitten feet. And the
sheer brutality of conflict is lost on the screen. Oh the screaming may be
there, and the sound of shells exploding may be there, and the echoes of
buzzing bullets may be dead on accurate, but how does one duplicate the horror
of the tens of thousands of young women, your age, left to the mercy of
invading soldiers bent on terrorizing and demoralizing an entire nation with
their brutality?
"In war", said Jose Narosky, "there
are no unwounded soldiers." And we might add, "few
undamaged civilians."
The natural order is reversed in wartime. No longer do the young bury the old,
rather the old bury their young.
It has been said that the most persistent sound throughout history is the
beating of war drums ( see Arthur Koesther).
Canadians have marched to those drum beats. Many Canadians still do.
Canadians have been on the vanguard or cutting edge of all of the major
conflicts of the past century and are participants still in combat zones around
the world. We are and have been because of our very nature, our very mettle,
the fabric that makes us a proud nation. The core values we espouse carry us to
those zones. We are not nor have been an aggressor nation, and we are not nor
have been a military state. We do however take up arms, not lightly, but in the
aid and pursuit of the lofty goals of seeking to resist evil and to do justice.
We go to war, we say at least, to do battle against evil and tyranny, praying
it to be true in the hope, vain or naive that we will affect change for war
always changes things. And we believe, we trust, yes and pray that that change
will be for the good.
Indeed, in spite of war bringing out the very worst of the human soul, it has
also spawned some of the best. The Canadian Corps pioneered the use of plasma
transfusions, skin grafting of burn victims, and the treatment of the mental
illness brought about by the trauma of conflict, as well as a host of other “goods”
still with us today.
Perhaps we might think that history teaches us that bombs are the only way to
ignite the human spirit.
Our challenge today is not to honour and remember
only, but to decide whether we will maintain the Canadian tradition of
naively striving to make a difference.
We may challenge the decision to go to war. We may challenge the decision to be
involved in conflicts half way around the globe. Challenge away my friends,
challenge away !! For another generation's youthful
efforts helped secure that Right for you.
War is hell. It is not a game.
Canadians know this and that is why, in part, Canadians coast to coast to
coast, will gather at 11 o’clock on this 11th Day of this 11th Month to
Remember ... to be silent ... to honour ... and to
give thanks.
Thank you for you attentiveness.