Lest we forget — Who should we commemorate?

Jessica Perini, Everleigh, May 3, 2024

What should we commemorate? The quest for peace in our lifetime. Those who champion alternatives to war. The right to want the commemoration of war money to go into mental health services, which are desperately needed due to, in part, the continuation of war “at all costs”.

Those who champion the rights of children, especially those on the fringes, the victims of war, and First Peoples. Those who stand up for the countless women tortured daily, and all too many killed by those who know them. We should commemorate the women who stood up and aired the need for all people to have voices, not through war but through democratic means.

Those who daily save lives: the nurses, doctors, lifesavers, firefighters. The teachers who stand with few resources and battle for the future of our children. The poets, the storytellers, the scholars.

The earth restorers, those who clean up our rivers, who rebuild our ancient soils.

Lest we forget that our society is made up of a multitude of faces, opinions, histories, beliefs, not all fought for by our soldiers. Not all made on a piece of land of inconsequential military significance, in a battle we well and truly lost.

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