I do not usually go to the Dawn Parade. I am a "lapsed" worshipper at this national altar. This year I went and was there for my father, my grandfather, and two generations that came out of WWI and II, and grieved for those who never returned.
So many came, people of all ages including children and teenagers. Their cars were parked on every available piece of asphalt or grass and people walked from further away than any would walk to church these days.
The Mayor spoke well as usual and people spontaneously clapped the veterans as they marched past. I could not help being deeply moved by it all and, had there been an altar call, could even have been persuaded to return from my backslidden state.
However someone quoted Jesus, "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down ones life for one friends" and the spell was suddenly broken for I remembered that Jesus died refusing to use violence to defend either himself or his friends, let alone his oppressed generation. Our brave heroes died, and veterans survived, taking other human lives.
My father, ever practical, would have considered war a necessary evil. He found no joy in the death of enemy airmen who attempted to sink his ship. He never forgot they were human like him, and left loved ones behind.
Jesus also died because he believed his course a necessary one. Necessary, I believe, for our salvation, but also necessary to show humanity another way of responding to the violence and evil of others.
The way of steadfast love of friend and enemy, the way of creative, non-violent resistance, the way of using personal power and reclaiming personal dignity without violence towards an oppressor. The way of overcoming evil with good. And he called us to follow in that way.
I did not wear a red poppy. I would have had I had the nerve to wear my white one beside it. However the faithful might have slaughtered me. There were a lot of guns at the parade.
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