FOR REMEMBRANCE day I like to put on Pink Floyd’s Final Cut and read Wilfred Owen poems. Now that the day is over, I guess it’s time to throw away the plastic poppies.

Personally I like Remembrance Day to last a little longer than a day. Increasingly, the day is being used to

‘not only honour our veterans, but to try and nurture an understanding that may prevent future wars: Veterans are giving talks in the schools now, and have become active in educating against nuclear war. When I read Owen (A soldier killed on the last day of World War I), I can un- derstand the horror he saw. I can see why that war ended the romantic notion of battle. When I listen to The Fi- nal Cut. I hear the anger of a man who's father died in the second world war as he watches his country, England, steam off for another war in the Falklands. And I play a few games to try and bring it all home:

Imagine the Canadian Government deciding to put an end to the superpower’s cat and mouse game being played in our arctic. Imagine France started sinking Newfoundland trawlers off the coast of St. Pierre. And imagine conscription being imposed to deal with it. I have to ask myself what 1 would do; would I skip the country, or join up’in a flare of patriotic furvor? Could I ever jus- tify committing murder for any reason, especially nation- alism? Could I support the choice of a military solution at all? After all, these are the questions our veterans asked themselves.

We have been lulled into believing that the next war will be unpreventable and nuclear, and most don’t think about the possibility. of ‘conventional’ war. Thinking that way leads to a fatalistic view that can be very dangerous. When Remembrance day roles around, I like to’ remind myself that only two atomic bombs have ever been used to. kill. ‘This is probably due to the fact that using them again means that a) Everyone gets killed, and b) Only a few can play. People still overwhelmingly prefer —_ to kill their neighbor with bullets.

Canada is a pretty quiet place. But Remembrance day reminds me that peace is not the natural state of the world— battles are being fought in the Phillipines, most of Central America, Iran, India and others. The U.S. funds a group to destroy the government-of tiny Nicaragua, and South Africa is doing the same thing to Namibia. Coun- tries are still.children when it comes to dealing with each other. If you travel outside North Aimerica, airport se- curity is frighteningly thorough because of terrorists. All this reminds me that the relative serenity in Canada is an exception that could change verygquickly..

We_owe it to the people who died to not let. that hap- pen. Don’t become complacent when people tell you the next war will be nuclear. You may be surprised. And this year, don’t throw your poppie out just yet. Keep it on for another day or two and think a little more about all that it means. : a

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