I have a bit of an issue with remembering things. My brain tends to store the totally pointless trivia that might help on a general knowledge crossword but is basically useless in everyday life. My head has always been filled with random information and ideas but generally I can't remember what I did the day before. I've never had a problem remembering lines from films and plays - much to the irritation of people when I constantly quote from things - and I'm generally fairly good with dates, that is until my peculiar form of dyslexia kicks in confusing 4s with 7s and 6s with 8s!!
Earlier this year - way back in January (and yes, I can remember that!) - Alex encouraged me to watch the HBO series Band of Brothers. In all honesty I didn't really want to. I'm not a fan of war films, having no pointless trivia relating to the Second World War and viewing the whole affair rather like Carrie's War or Goodnight Mr Tom. I watched it as much for Alex as for me but was totally hooked on it by the second episode. Since then I've watched the series a further three times. It is not at all melodramatic to say that the series has had a profound effect on me and taught me a lot more about the war than I ever learnt at school. I hated looking at soap adverts and ration books and had in my head that the whole war was fought with aeroplanes and was full of blitzes and little else. My Grandfather was involved in the war, but I never knew him. Through Band of Brothers I really felt that I got to know the men of Easy Company and shared in all their emotions as the series unfolded through laughter, tears and smiles.
Believe it or not these two paragraphs do tie together with a point... In a week and a half the country will come together in an act of remembrance for all the fallen soldiers who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars as well as the conflicts since. I have never had a problem remembering to say thank you, I was brought up with immaculate manners (although from time to time they fall by the wayside!) and Remembrance Sunday is one such occasion to stand up and show how grateful I am. This evening we concluded watching Band of Brothers, and earlier in the day a volunteer for the Royal British Legion of Scotland had been round collecting for the Poppy Appeal. Things were all fitting into perspective of the sheer scale of courage displayed by soldiers and it is unsurprising, then, that I was totally sickened to read this on the local forum:
What a stupid comment! At first I felt incredibly angry that someone could write such an utterly offensive and totally manipulated comment, but after a time it just made me feel overwhelmingly sad. It's true that I do my best not to let such ignorance pull me down, but likewise at times I can't help it.
Freedom is a word that is banded around so often in today's world without any real consideration of what it means. It is so easy to quote freedom of speech as a righteous umbrella for all manner of fouling and deceit. I was not alive during WWI or WWII, I only vaguely remember the first Gulf War - I still have my letter from the soldier I wrote to and the sand that was in the letter he sent back - but to me it is insignificant compared to how I feel about the men who died in them. The freedom they fought for was not any form of destruction - they did not fight so that someone could burn the poppies people use to remember them by, nor did they fight for the right to ridicule or deride others for not sharing their views on politics or religion. When I turn up at the War Memorial here in my home town a week on Sunday it shall be to remember men who fought and died for the freedom of others to live. And though the miserable and negative wretch who wrote such poppycock (see what I did there!?) as the above quote shall no doubt cross my mind, it will only be in a pitying way that he is unable to see the world that those soldiers fought so hard to protect and obtain the freedom they spilled their blood to preserve.
I hope that I never forget to be grateful to those heroes who fought and died yesterday to enable me to live my life today.
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