A Minute of Silence ---For the Guys on BOTH sides...

A Minute of Silence...FOR BOTH SIDES...

Abhishek, one of my students just before I retired from four-walled traditional teaching, emailed me... with the video link... 
I added a short note to it to explain the content...and asked him whether he is willing to add his thoughts to it...

Warsaw...August 1... "A Minute of Silence..."

Every August first, everyone in Warsaw stands still for a full minute to remember 200 000 dead

The Warsaw Uprising  began on August 1, 1944. For the next 63 days, Poland’s army fought the Nazis, trying to liberate their capital. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union’s advance that should have left the Germans vulnerable, but…

…various military and political miscalculations, as well as global politics — played among Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt — turned the dice against [Warsaw].

The effort lasted nine weeks and failed, leaving 200,000 Polish dead, mainly civilians. 

Every year, Warsaw commemorates this horrific tragedy with a minute of stillness. It is tremendously moving, needless to say…

I also found this sir:
                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykBTvP6ZX9s.
Abhishek

I provided the note in the box above...and Abhishek provided the link

Poland's "Minute of Silence" on Aug. 1....

Abhishek, and ALL the Youth of the World...

I am indeed apprehensive about these remembrance events... I am at times sickened with the tenor of the speeches... They essentially boil down to “Our boys were the good guys and their boys were the bad ones...We fought for high ideas like democracy and freedom, while they were the aggressors and the tyrants and evil...”

This one sided approach is disheartening to say the least...and demonstrates that we never comprehended that wars kill the boys from BOTH sides... and that our side is human, and believe it or not, the other side is human too...

But this is the logic...

•      We initiate a propaganda war...
•        We dehumanize the other side...
•       The rah-rah is elevated to insanely fever pitch...levels...
•       Then, only then, we militarize the conflict...
•       We bomb the hell out of the other side...
•       We kill...and we mutilate...and we rape...and we burn...and we        destroy...and we brutalize entire cities...and their civilian population...
•       ...And then we look at our achievement...We are content of “our six day toil”...
•       We look at our achievement... ALL IS BEAUTIFUL...ALL IS GOOD...
•      ...and we initiate REMEMBRANCE DAYS...

Remember..and Reflect on PEACE..

  We remember...and by remembering we “educate” the youth and the population at large for the NEXT WAR... After all our side is the “GOOD” side...and the “other side” ... (which we still do not know and cannot identify YET)...but definitely is the “BAD” side...

Every November 11 I was depressed and sick... The Remembrance Day essentially was another form of war mongering...It dismayed me... A cadet – essentially, a soldier scout, approached me in front of a supermarket asking for donation...                 

“I do not support wars...” was my answer...                                              

“We do not fight...,”said the cadet...                                                           

“But you are part of the army...” I said and walked away...

Remember... Both sides are HUMAN BEINGS

Remembering one side defies logic...Every Remembrance Day I wore a poppy ... My classroom was full of poppies...edging the blackboard... But I posed the question ... 
“what about the boys on the other side...?”

The poppies on top of the blackboard... 

We remembered the guys on BOTH SIDES...

After all, I know that Germans died too... After all I love to listen to Wagner too... 

Wagner and Bolshoi...Side by side... 

Also, I know that the Bolshoi exists ... I know that St. Petersburg is a beautiful place to be... I know that Kiev is a superb city ... Just like London, just like Paris, just like Washington...

                              St. Petersburg            and               Kiev...

Side by side...

Every Remembrance Day ... I remembered humans inhumanity to fellow humans ... regardless of the side, regardless of the faith, regardless of the 
creed ...

After all, remember...                                 

                                                                                 

The world is not flat... the world is sort of round and has NO SIDES...     

That’s the math for you...                                                                                        

There is no “our side” and there is no “there side"....                                                     There is ONE HUMAN COLLECTIVE...                                                                and,

 There is one Global Village...

And now, Abhishek                                                                                     

ALL the youth of the world...                                                           

May PEACE be with you...

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Hillary Clinton: War is “coercive diplomacy” ... She said the other day when I as listening to her... War is the extension of diplomacy...another  diplomat reiterated... 
But,
I will argue that war is the failure of diplomacy... par excellence... It is an uncivilized way of resolving conflicts and solving contradictions...

It is brutish where the animal instincts overwhelm the person...

When one nation honours the war victims...automatically and with the extension of simple logic... they are justifying their "cause" and degrading the other side...
I have witnessed Remembrance Days over and over again... When the soldiers of one side were honoured...It always bothered me...

What does the other side do...? Do they honour their soldiers too...?

If both sides do honour their soldiers as heroes...Can we truly say that the war is over...?

French and German presidents hug...But should we believe them....?
and read the news item below...

Former Enemies Unite for World War I Commemoration

LIEGE, Belgium — Aug 4, 2014, 7:22 AM ET

By VIRGINIA MAYO and RAF CASERT Associated Press

Former enemies united Monday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, with Belgium, France, Britain and Germany standing together in a spirit of reconciliation.

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The honest and logical truth... War is killing....and GOOD people SHOULD NOT KILL... 

“Thou shall NOT kill...” and “kill” does not have adjectives before or after... and “kill” does not have any qualifiers...following it...

There is no such thing...“Thou shall NOT kill...” but when... or “Thou shall not kill...” only if...