Remembrance Day

Reality check time.

To me. Remembrance Day is remembering the almost unbelievable numbers of souls who died in two world wars. The clue is in the "Remembrance" part. From that. My heart and mind is reminded every year of the duty to never allow such global insanity and death to happen again. That is "In their honour". I Honour them by remembering, learning and preventing.

What spooks me a little. Is the subtle twist on that to make it "Thank you to everyone serving in the forces" day. Just stop right there.

In the UK it's "Remembrance" day. It's Remembrance of the deaths in the two world wars. Nothing else. Not "And thanks guys that we might send to another pointless deaths counted in millions upon millions".

I guess growing numbers of people are unaware of the death toll of the two world wars. It becomes abstract over time. This is why we have a Remembrance day. So it doesn't become an abstract. We remember and learn.

Here are the simple facts:

Dead, wounded and missing. First World War: 31,500,000
Civilian and Military deaths. Second World War: 52,200,000

Total from both:

83.7 million

Pause.
Look at that number.
Remember that every single year and why we can't let it happen again.


This year it's bugged me enough to write this little post. Remembrance day (to me) is about remembering the past and learning from it. Nothing else. It doesn't begin to creep in to a celebration of the Military. It's honouring the deaths of unimaginable millions who came before us.

There is nothing wrong with respecting those who put themselves in the military, but that is a totally different issue.