Once again we celebrate a group
that even most of its members wish we
never had to celebrate, wish there was
no need for, wish the very concept
of war was never realized or imagined.
You have to pause and wonder why God
in his or her infinite wisdom allowed
Cain to kill Abel, allowed the seeds
of greed to take purchase in our
all too fertile mental soil, why a birthright
was something to be fought over, why
yours and mine became embedded
so deeply in our ethos we reluctantly
accept war as a consequence of living.
So while we view such days as those of celebration,
while we set aside a day to note
the ending of a “war to end all wars,”
we cannot forget the countless wars that followed.
We ought to view such days as a day of mourning
for the world that might, that ought to, be.