What do you think about in the silence now? Do you really think about all those men that died, and what their families were put through? Modern society isn’t designed like that, we’re not built to think about that kind of thing. We are a society based on the present and the future. What’s done is done, and no matter how amazing it was that those men put their lives on the line, it is long over.
Well what about the people who do appreciate the silence you say? Well who does? There are so few people still alive after the war, and so few related that can remember them that there is no point in doing it for their benefit, and even if it was worth it, do we want to exaggerate their feelings of terror and upset every year when they remember the hell they went through for four years?
Well it’s put us ahead of where we should be, we’ve learnt so much from it, look where we are now. Yes we’re here with more technological equipment than could have been imagined, mainly due to the advancements in technology during the war. But where has it got us? It’s got us a League of Nations once, now the United Nations, but what effect do they have if all people do is ignore them? Just what would those men who set it up in order to preserve peace, and stop all this happening again be saying to themselves as they look down on the Gulf war or the war in Kosovo that is still recent enough for the majority of us to remember, or the war in which the modern day league of nations was ignored, the Iraqi war? They would probably be wondering if all those men who had to lose their lives for this League of Nations to be set up died in vain.
Due to the vast amount of weapons and technology at our disposal, nothing like that war will ever happen again. So why remember? The reason we remember things, is to make ourselves happy, or to learn from the memories. We can do neither with the memories that most of us haven’t even got. Nor can we do it with the imaginary memories we conjure up every 11th of November, so why bother? Ignorant but fair, for any one who can’t imagine, focus or remember what happened it is embarrassing. For those who can remember, it is painful, and for those who just don’t understand it is both.
People may say that it is rude, and disrespectful to those that put their lives on the line for their country and our freedom, I believe it’s not rude or disrespectful, ask the few people still alive from the war that if they had the choice to remember that tragic event or not how many would say yes. My guess is one or two, although many would argue with that. How would you like to see friends, relatives and comrades die before your eyes every 11th of November? Because that’s what happens to them. Most of them would give anything to forget, so why are we carrying on this tradition when to those that really does remember it brings so much pain, and to those who don’t, nothing more than a little feeling that they have done something good that day.
There are so many wars going on at the moment that shouldn’t we remember them instead? Many of you say that if we should remember, but if we did what you said, and had a minutes silence for every time somebody put their life on the line for their country, then we would be living our lives in silence. Wouldn’t it make sense to remember something more important?
We should focus on the present not the past, that’s over and if it’s that little feeling of goodness that you get that makes you want to hold on to this tradition, then you should be doing more than you do to help your community and world now. If that feeling once a year makes you satisfied, then you need to do a lot more than you do. If you do, then that little feeling you get every 11th of November will disappear, and in its place will be a much greater feeling that you are making a difference in someone’s life.
What it all boils down to is that remembering those involved won’t help in any way, remembering those in need now, and acting upon it will. It’s your decision to make.
Naobh O’Donoghue 9b