Peace Be With You

At 11 o'clock Sunday morning, it will be one hundred years since the signing of the Armistice, ending World War One.  At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, "the war to end all wars" ended. 

      

To say it's been an uneasy peace is a ludicrous understatement.  The past century has been called, "the bloodiest century in modern history".  Industrialization, technology and bio-technology have given warriors weapons of mass destruction unimagined centuries ago.  Hiroshima and Nagaski come to mind.  A lone wolf with a truckload of fertilizer, or a rental car, a semi automatic weapon, homemade bomb or a meat cleaver, can kill dozens of innocents.  It is estimated that more than 160 million people have been killed in wars, conflicts, and acts of terrorism in the last one hundred years.  As Joseph Stalin is oft quoted as cynically saying, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.  

This isn't about diminishing the courageous service and sacrifice of the young men and women who fought in these wars...those who fought for our freedom from Fascism and Nazism in the Second World War.  It is not to say that they fought in vain.  It is to acknowledge our own inhumanity.

The wars don't end when the treaties are signed.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an ever present shadow in the lives of soldiers and the civilians who survived a war.  Terrorism, both foreign and homegrown, brings war to our doorstep.  And children must watch their step wherever bombs have been buried and forgotten. 

Tonight, I am reminded of how fragile peace is, even in peace time.  My sister in Melbourne lost a friend this morning.  The coffee shop owner was killed by a terrorist, who was in turn killed by police.  

This one hundredth anniversary of the end of WWI is for me perhaps more sombre than all the rest.  I truly wish you peace.  Sadly, it may not be lasting peace.  So, I wish you peace in your heart, and the strength to overcome all else.

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.