11 - 11 - 11:00

The eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month - it marks the official end to the first world war... the "great war"... the "war-to-end-all-wars"... or so they thought.

I attended a brief ceremony today that asked only that we "remember". While some thought the turnout was impressive, I couldn't help but think, "This is it?"

On a campus with somewhere around 15,000 faculty, staff, and students, maybe 150 bothered to join the president for this 10 minute reminder. That's 0.01% for those counting at home.

Earlier in the week I heard mention of some dispute about whether the community should even celebrate Remembrance Day. I can only assume this position is held by the ultra-paranoid "politically correct" factions or by the short-sighted doves with a reflexive response to any mention of war.

I consider myself a peace-nik and wish none of the world's nations had the need for a military. Yet it's naive to think the armed forces unnecessary just as it was wishful thinking on the part of those who believed they had witnessed the "war-to-end-all-wars". Regardless, it is an embarrassment to flippantly brush aside the memory of those who died so young.

The few remaining veterans of the world wars (and even Korea) are old and grey and perhaps that shields the imaginations of younger generations who forget that those weathered faces were once 18 and 19 years old - precisely the age when they faced trenches and tanks, and the brutal losses of their friends.

There has always been war and there will always be - it's the great paradox of humanity. As long as we survive and have the ability to think differently, there will always be those who simply cannot live together.

However, those who can take the time to remember the tragedies of a war they never saw can hopefully extend that and try helping others to avoid facing new ones in the future.

Take some time to think and remember.