Avoidance

[eumelia]

Which was dashed out the window.

The past two weeks are hard for me. Not only because of the solemn occasions regarding the various memorial days, them being national Holocaust memorial day and Memorial day which is used as a precursor for Independence day, which is just coming to a close.

Both memorial days are commemorated by ceremonies and a nation wide two minute siren in which we are supposed to stand still and "think" about the dead.

I was never a fan of these events, but since my own experiences in the Second Lebanon War I pretty much loathe them. The people I know who died serving in the IDF or through terrorist attacks, I remember regardless as to whether I stop still in the middle of the street while an air raid siren pierces the air.
I think about the the genocide of my people (and everyone else who was systematically murdered due to who they were) a lot. Probably more than is healthy. I'm not into the whole Shoah as an academic interest or as an intersected period, I pretty much avoid thinking about it in that way.

Any way, the past two weeks have been about me avoiding the public radio, public television and I've basically removed Facebook from my life other than to get some invites and messages to community and activism events.

But I hate these ceremonies; I haven't been to a Holocaust memorial ceremony in years, I try to avoid being in public during the sirens and the one time a year I go to a Memorial day ceremony to listen to the names of the all the people who died during the various and sundry wars Israel has fought all I can think of is, predictably, Sinead O'Connor.

During my emotional turmoil in the months following the war, I listened to Sinead a lot. She had always been a favourite, but in that time I feel like she really saved me. And of the songs I listened to over and over and over again and to which I'm listening now is "Drink Before The War".

Well, you tell us that we're wrong
And you tell us not to sing our song
Nothing we can say will make you see
You got a heart of stone
You can never feel

You say "oh I'm not afraid - it can't happen to me
I've lived my life as a good man
Oh, no you're out of your mind
It won't happen to me
‘Cos I've carried my weight
And I've been a strong man"

Listen to the man in the liquor store
Yelling "anybody want a drink before the war?"

And your parents paid you through
You got a nice big car
Nothing bothers you
Somebody cut out your eyes
You refuse to see
Somebody cut out your heart
You refuse to feel
And you live in a shell
You create your own hell
You live in the past
And talk about war
And you dig your own grave yeah
But it's a life you can save
So stop getting fast
It's not gonna happen
And you'll cry
But you'll never fall
No, no, no
You're building a wall
Gotta break it down
Start again

No, no, no
It won't happen to us
We've lived our lives
Basically we've been good men
So stop talking of war
Cause you know we've heard it all before
Why don't you go out there
And do something useful

Oh listen to the man in the liquor store
He yelling "anybody wanna drink before the war?"
"Anybody wanna drink before the war?"
"Anybody wanna drink before the war?"

And well, when listening to elementary school children read out the names of the dead and read poems about soldiers who die in glory but are sorely, sorely missed... I can never help but be moved and think, "look what we're being prepared for".

I don't know if that's cynical or just sad.

But the glory of Jingo is not one I participate in with a whole heart.
Mostly, I just like the fireworks.

Comments

[silveradept]

The glory of Jingo is a thing that I, too, do not participate in wholly. I see too easily what it does to those who don't stop to think about where it leads before diving right in.

It is still patriotic to believe that there's room for improvement, even when everyone around you is yelling for you to shut up and bask in the perfection of Ozymandias's statue.