Today, the last Monday in
May, is Memorial Day here in the United States. It's a day set aside to
remember those Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice. As we remember them, we should also pause to remember the devastating toll that war
has taken on all the peoples of the world - military and civilian
alike.
The numbers are staggering.
In what is described as an "incomplete" list of the approximately 3000 wars in
recorded human history, a Wikipedia article puts the minimum
figure for deaths due to war at more than 340 million. The totals
for each war in the list "usually include both the deaths of
military personnel which are the direct results of battle or other
military wartime actions, as well as the wartime/ war-related deaths
of civilians, which are the results of war induced epidemics,
diseases, famines, atrocities etc."
Besides the deaths from war,
tens of millions of civilians have become refugees - either fleeing to
another country or "internally displaced". Currently, according to the World Refugee Day website, there
are 43.7 million of them. Were they a country, refugees would rank about 30th in population amongst the nations of the world.
UPDATE: A report released in June 2014 by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, shows that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people. [The Guardian, June 20]
UPDATE: A report released in June 2014 by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, shows that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people. [The Guardian, June 20]
Greed, hatred, nationalism,
perceived wrongs, balance of power, economic systems, religious
beliefs, quest for power, bloodlust - mankind has found many reasons
to go to war. They are all wrong. They all basically stem from the
perception of "the Other", someone you can dehumanize
because he is different from you.
Will it ever change? One
would hope so. John Kennedy once said "War
will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector
enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."
Fifty years after Kennedy's death, that day remains distant.
Still we got to start
somewhere. So I'll close with a few quotes and a few songs that look
to that brighter distant day when men will no longer take up arms against their
brothers and sisters. Here's a link to blues guitarist Lead Belly singing "Ain't Gonna Study War No More". (Apropos of nothing in particular: George
Harrison has been quoted as saying "No Lead Belly, no Beatles.")
Albert Camus: "There
are causes worth dying for but none worth killing for."
"Peace on Earth" was all it said.
Joan Baez: "If people
have to put labels on me, I'd prefer the first label to be human
being, the second label to be pacifist, and the third to be folk
singer." Here's a link to Joan Baez singing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". (In spite of the actual title Dylan gave his song, Joan Baez pronounces the "g" at the end of Blowin'.) The linked video also has some great shots of the young Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Dylan just turned 72 this past Friday and does that ever make me feel old! Happy Birthday, Bobby.
How many deaths will
it take 'til he knows
that too many people have
died?
Mahatma Gandhi: "What
difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of
totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
Last night I had the strangest dream I never dreamed before.
I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.
Photos
Leadbelly from womex.com (adapted from Lead Belly Publicity Shot on Wikipedia Commons)
thank you for the links that remind us war must end even if it seems a done deal or a damn deal maybe or a damn bad deal. And your comment about "the Others" is a direct comment on how egoity or the convincing sense we all get that we are separate beings (seems to be self-evident but are we Really?), and that there are other others and a world of threats out there we need to protect our invented mummery false selves from. It's like by presuming we are separate and doing the actions that separate us again and again addictively, we give nature a stick to hit us over the head with and war never ends. Does the idea of separation dissolve when you find your "self" forgotten in only Love? Now that's something worth "fightin" for! Do that more! And see what happens in your intimate and local sphere and maybe if we begin to get hip to that we can all drop the name cards and nation cards and transcend difference and separation (and so the causes of fear), and something new may emerge! Something new MUST emerge!
ReplyDeletePeace to all you guys, all family.....mankind all one family, no tribes, only cooperation, tolerance and peace. Live from that presumption of egoless unity as what we Are, Really.