Unknown and Forgotten

Today is ANZAC day in New Zealand. The promise solemnly recited at memorial services throughout the country is poetic.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
we will remember them.

This was a noble promise, but it is not true. As time passes the focus shifts from remembering the people to remembering the wars.

My uncle went missing in Italy in 1942. When I was young, my father remembered the brother he lost when his life was just beginning. My grandmother remembered and grieved for her son, whose life was cut off before it had fully flowered. They were remembering a young man that they had known intimately.

Now, most of the people who knew my uncle are gone, so soon there will be no one left to remember him. I am now one of the senior members of my family, but I did not know him, so I cannot remember him. All I know of him is a few words written about him by my Father. He was a kind young man who loved animals and he had been very successful in growing vegetables.

So as the sun goes down today, almost no one is remembering him. In a few years, he will be unknown and forgotten.

The promise made to mothers that their sons would be remembered forever was a false hope. Soon all that is remembered will be the wars and the exploits of the military.