It is truly unfortunate that it takes an utter catastrophe to make us stop and think. More so, it is the cruel, horrific instances we deem requisite of immortality in our minds.
“Lest we never forget.” “Forgive, but never forget.”
These are but a couple of the innocent-sounding, yet rooted-in-hate phrases we love to sling about when memorializing tragedies. Almost in every case, these phrases are spoken to evoke a call for revenge and justice, yet never fail to emanate the failed understanding of their speakers in that neither goal is sought; only hurt is desired.
These types of phrases can be heard at all levels of disruption from a relationship gone wrong to mass murder. They tend to slip into common rhetoric when discussion leans towards calamity such as the attacks of Sept.11, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the murder of Jesuits and their housekeeper in El Salvador in 1989. Our intensions are pure in saying “never forget,” but we are truly doing a disservice to the victims of these terrors.
What are we not forgetting? The blood, the horrid sounds, the political decay? We are not looking to a scroll of the victims’ names, taking a moment to think of their families and give a small prayer. For the most part, we aren’t even thinking about the circumstances and mistakes which led to the event’s unfolding. No, we are thinking “damn the monsters responsible straight to hell.”
In fact, our hatred and wishes of killing shadow the lost. It is almost a selfish notion, the fear that this could happen to me demands that those responsible die, not because they have killed, but because they are different and a threat to me. Perhaps this is the root of our sense of evil.
Such phrases are so busy hating that they neglect to investigate whether or not something has been learned. When something goes wrong, it is logical and human to make corrections to prevent the wrong’s repetition. War has a funny way of making us lose sight of this.
Sure, we remember the battles, the weapons, and even the nameless numbers of the victorious fallen, but did we learn anything? I would suggest in desperate hope that we learned how to prevent such an occurrence from repeating itself, or at least something about the sanctity of human life.
Armistice Day so recently past, a review of US operations in the Middle East begs the same question, did we learn anything? Military officials and civilians alike would argue we slept through that class. I only hope we can get the notes from someone who stayed awake.
Whether you have a friend in Christianity, Islam, Shinto or what have you, we are creatures of love. Words have a power, and when we use them with such hate, we seek to destroy everything. The memories we look to record are not honors to the fallen or a hope for future’s betterment, rather they are calls to kill.
Killing is one thing this world is in no need of. The 20th century gave us a horrible surplus. We cannot in the same sob weep tears of love for what was lost and hate for those we wish to harm. This is unnatural and poisonous, and I would hope humans have evolved past such a primal yearning.
Perhaps it is time to retire the political catch phrase “Lest we never forget,” and instead, “lest we learn.” This is to us, may we learn to navigate hate, and above all to learn to love our fellow sisters and brothers.