The War to End All Wars - Why We Remember

Lest We Forget
What do we forget when we remember
What are the stories left untold
What do we think each November
As we march down that glory road
As we march down that gory road

One hundred million
Don’t come home from war
Another eight hundred million
Who lived to bear its scar
Who lived to bear its scar

Lest we forget
What they were dying for
Lest we forget
What they were killing for
Lest we forget
What the hell it was for
 
What do we forget when we remember…

Owen Griffiths




The War to End All Wars. The Great War. The War of the Nations. World War One.


It's been known by many names over the years, but mostly by the last one. World War One. Signifying that it wasn't the "war to end all wars" after all. Another came after it. And more have followed. But the First World War lives on in our memories for so many reasons.


This isn't a history lesson. I'm not going to recap all the statistics we already know. I'm just going to ask: What does November 11th mean to you? Is it just another day off? Or maybe you don't even get the day off. Maybe it's just another blip on your calendar. Or do you stop and reflect that on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the month, nearly 100 years ago, the Armistice was signed and the world took a collective sigh of relief.


I've never experienced war. Or oppression of any kind. In all three countries in which I've lived, I've had freedom of speech, of religion, of pretty much any kind I might have wanted. And I think that is largely in part to the millions who fought for those freedoms a hundred years ago.


So, even if I forget the rest of the year, I like to do my best to remember on this day.


<3 Belle

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