Harry Patch: Remembering War

by Scott Cressman

We are lucky that Remembrance Day is when we reflect on war. If they don’t want to, no Canadian needs to think about the fear, violence, and turmoil that war carries. But one man, a man who had more to remember than most people, did not enjoy Remembrance Day. War is a waste, he said, and Nov. 11 is “just show business.”

That man, Harry Patch, died in July at the age of 111. He was the last British veteran of the trenches from the first World War, which Woodrow Wilson called the “war to end all wars.”

Mr Patch was 18 years old when he was conscripted into the infantry. The next year, 1917, he manned a machine gun in France, where the war had slowed to a crawl in the muddy trenches. He fought at Passchendaele, a three-month battle that gained only five miles but cost both sides hundreds of thousands of lives.

He soon felt the routine tragedy of war, as an exploding shell killed three members of his gun crew. Mr Patch spent a year in hospital, and the war was over when he emerged. Back home, he kept quiet about his war experiences for 80 years. Finally, in 1997, this veteran decided to use his war hero status and make peace his legacy. He was interviewed on television, in magazines, and wrote a book about his experiences and observations. The war was a tragic waste, he said

On the 90th anniversary of Passchendaele, the old soldier returned to France to lay wreaths for both Allied and German soldiers. He never forgot the humanity in the men he had fought in his youth. He never praised victory or glorified war.

Harry Patch was a regular man, a soldier, a plumber, and a man of peace.

You can find Mr. Patch’s life story in his book “The Last Fighting Tommy.”

Information gathered from the New York Times and BBC .

Further Reading

More news from the revolution to change the world…

Which country is doing the most to help poor nations develop? Sweden is tops, according to measurements from the Center for Global Development.  The Center has an index that judges how well the 22 richest countries support prosperity and security for others. While northern European countries are doing the most, Canada is unremarkably average. 

Soon after iamrevolting’s latest environmental post, the CBC’s D. Simon Jackson also explained how Canada has been slow to join the world in developing environmental strategies. A major climate summit will be start in Copenhagen Dec. 7. You can read more about Canada’s relationship with climate change in that article.

But let’s not be preoccupied with nations’ roles as peace-makers. We might never see a political leader step forward with bold choices. Better for individuals to take the responsiblity themselves and create a movement for peace and justice. A practical, personal relationship is more real and impactful for those involved than any national policy.

Fight the Power

by Scott Cressman
This blog post is part of Blog Action Day on climate change

Canadians love our home’s reputation as a pristine nature sanctuary, the Great White North. We also like to call ourselves a progressive country, a global do-gooder. After all, we’re safe, peaceful, and clean, right?

But maybe Canadians should take a harder look at our identity. According to Green Peace, Canada’s not so squeeky-clean. In a recent report called “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent,” (you can find a copy of the report here) environmental writer Andrew Nikiforuk blasts Canada and its Alberta oilsands project. The oilsands are an immense endeavor, owner of the biggest carbon footprint of any commercial oil producer. The oilsands already pollute more than small countries like Lithuania, the report says, and are on pace to overtake Ireland, Belgium, and Austria by 2020. Overall, Canada has become one of the world`s highest per-capita green house gas producers.

Real Peace-Makers: Love Thy Neighbour

by Scott Cressman
Retold from the book “War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,” by Chris Hedges.

The year is 1992. The Bosnian War has begun, using ethnicity and religion to tear neighbours apart based. Violence is rising between the nation’s three groups of people, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.

Rosa and Drago Sorak live in the town of Gorazde, some of the few Christian Serbs in this Muslim area. As the conflict grows, their two sons are killed. They suffer death threats and their town is bombed. The couple has a baby girl, but no electricity, gas, or water. Food becomes scarce and the parents can do little as other infants die and their own daughter weakens.

A Day to Build Peace

by Scott Cressman

Did you know that Sept. 21 was the International Day of Peace? Since 1982, the United Nations has devoted one day in September to stopping war and the pain it creates. For years, the world has been slow to embrace this occasion, but now the peace movement may gaining speed.

This was a day to act and reflect on all the ways war costs us. True, the twenty-first is over now. But saving lives during a specific 24 hours is not what’s important; it’s finding an attitude and inspiration to work toward peace everyday in big and small ways. From the UN website: “International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire – personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace in your own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.”

Real Peace-Makers: Muriel Duckworth

by Scott Cressman

Most Canadians have probably never heard of Muriel Duckworth, the pacifist and activist from Nova Scotia who died Saturday. Neither had I, but now I wish Canadians knew this peacemaker better. She seems like the kind of Christian who grabs Jesus’ ideas of peace with both hands and won’t let go. Judging from these admiring articles from the CBC and the Associated Press, her strong voice and efforts earned real results and respect.

Ms. Duckworth was an outspoken pacifist during World War II, a position that made her unpopular with her neighbours. Decades later, she worked with Oxfam and led the national Voice of Women group against the Vietnam War by focusing on war’s real victims and causes. She brought Vietnamese women to Canada to share their stories, and also condemned our country’s support for the war through arms dealing. More recently, she remained dedicated to justice by speaking out through the Raging Grannies activist group.

How will we be remembered?

by Scott Cressman

What will we be remembered for?

I had this discussion with my friends recently. When our children and grandchildren look back at how we lived at the beginning of this century, what will make them roll their eyes in disbelief? What will make them mutter “that generation was so wrong about…”?

I might shake my head at the past decades’ over-sized SUVs, lack of seatbelts, or asbestos use, but am also sure my descendents will do the same towards me.

Predicting the future is a tricky task, but I think my generation could be judged for how it uses water. Of course, we can be dangerously careless with all the resources we’ve been given. But water is so vital to our survival: we need fresh water to drink, to stay clean, and to grow crops. No wonder the biblical writers portray water as the symbol of life itself.

Real Peace-Makers, part 1

Believing in a peaceful revolution needs to be more than just reading (or writing) a blog. It should be more than a bumper sticker or a catchy slogan. How can we reject violence in our daily lives? How can we inspire others to see peace in our actions and attitudes?

In a new feature called “Real Peace-Makers,” the iamrevolting blog will look at real people, people like you, who have stood up for their beliefs and worked for peace. If you know anyone who fits the description, email MCC.iamrevolting@gmail.com. We would love to tell these stories.

Confessions of an Irrational Fear-mongerer

By Michael Bueckert

Our society is running out of energy. But in the crucial quest to find the right energy source for Saskatchewan’s future, our hands have been tied. The ‘powers that be’ have chosen nuclear power as their preferred fuel of the future, and have pushed aside debate on other options. We need to revise how we discern nuclear energy’s appropriateness in our communities, by drawing on the wisdom of the agrarian author Wendell Berry:

“I am moreover a Luddite, in what I take to be the true and appropriate sense. I am not ‘against technology’ so much as I am for community. When the choice is between health of a community and technological innovation, I choose the health of the community. I would unhesitantly destroy a machine before I would allow the machine to destroy my community.”

Military Saviour

The world spent $1.46 trillion (USD) in 2008.  That number is mind-boggling, so big that it’s nearly impossible to imagine so much money. How many ways could that money have improved the world?  Even more scary, global military spending grew by 45 per cent in the last decade.

When it comes to military spending, the United States is in its own, super-heavyweight weight class.  America spent $607 billion, eclipsing second-place China’s $85 billion, France’s $66 billion, and the United Kingdom at $65 billion.

These numbers come from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  Check out all their information at their site.

I couldn’t help but think about our military obsession while I sat in a strange place: a movie theatre.  Hollywood’s new Transformers movie flashed across the screen, three hours of soldiers, guns, rockets, and robots in disguise.  The biggest and flashiest fighting technology saves the day.  A saviour in a machine.

So, robot soldiers are our heroes and we spend more on war than true peace.  It’s clear where this world puts its faith.  Those who believe in a better way to find peace should speak up.