Honouring The Warrior, Not The War.

I oppose war, certainly the act, and for very nearly all causes of it. I oppose the advertising of war as an honourable and worthwhile thing. I usually disagree with the views of anyone with military leaning on the subject of foreign policy. I don't value people automatically because of patriotic leanings, or find more worth in what they do because that is their motivation.

That being said: it’s Remembrance Day. Now, I’m not someone who shows up to the ceremonies at the University or Town Hall. I don’t pay tribute with my presence. Not that I’m opposed to those gatherings at all, I’m just sort of indifferent. They don’t mean much to me, with the talk of ‘they died for their country’ and ‘remembering the sacrifices they made for us’. I don’t care why they made them.

What I care about is that they *did* make them. The men and women we honour on Remembrance Day gave their lives, risked the emotional and economic well-being of their families and loved ones, for something they believed would make the world a better place. They died being the change they felt they ought to create in the world, or preventing one they thought would drag humanity down. That is why I feel they deserve, at the very least, a moment of pause to give thanks once a year.

Some of us, I know, remember more than just our veterans on Remembrance Day. To me, it’s not about a specific war, or only about our country’s enlisted soldiers, though they are a part of it. I personally had a friend die on Remembrance Day, a victim of her own exhaustion in trying to be some of the change she thought needed to be made in the world. No matter how little choice in some things she had, no matter the pain or baggage that came with her efforts, she was trying to be something better and make something better in the world around her. She had great dreams for what she wanted to do, for things she felt were important to bring into the world. She was a person, who in spite of the undertow of circumstance, was very often full of laughter and kindness and intelligence and creativity. And yet, just an ordinary person, like you or I. I won’t speculate or discuss here how she finally died, or why, or what might have prevented it. For the purpose of this blog entry, none of that matters, so much as the point I’d like to make:

Remembrance Day to me is about honouring those people who keep fighting. Who will fight until there’s nothing left to fight with, for beauty, justice, peace, compassion, or whatever else they value. It’s a day that should be about the warriors themselves, not the war. Whether they fight smart or hard or fast, whether they physically die in the struggle or just completely break themselves somehow with the effort, they *care*. They are people who triumph over apathy, people in whom pride and love combine and work together for a purpose. They are the people I admire most in all the world.

Today, to all you warriors, dead or alive, veterans or not: I salute you.