War is humanity’s oldest contradiction — the moment when our highest virtues and lowest instincts meet on the same battlefield. In the stillness that follows the roar of the guns, we are left with the silence of graves and the echo of profound questions that have no easy answers. And sadly, the constancy of violence and suffering reverberates across our world, from the ongoing civil war in Sudan to Putin’s imperialistic tragedy in Ukraine.
We are lucky to enjoy a free, safe and secure island life here in Jersey. But peace comes at a cost, a cost to so many brave men and women who have stood for our values and for our way of life. Those who fall in conflict hope that their sacrifice will mean something; that it will be remembered; that it will count; and that their children might inherit a better and safer world less broken. To honour them is not merely to recite their names or lay wreaths in the autumn weather. It is an opportunity, however fleeting, to thank them and reflect on the terrible cost of conflict. And perhaps more importantly, a reminder to us all to live in a better way, a way that justifies their absence.
Sadly, the human condition resists learning. Each generation mourns and rebuilds, promising that the slaughter will not come again, while somewhere new banners are raised and new graves are dug. It seems we are, whether we like it or not, creatures of contradiction: capable of infinite compassion, and yet unable to resist the old seductions of power, fear, and pride. That is perhaps the greatest tragedy, not only that war takes so much, but that it keeps returning, wearing a different mask, but speaking the same language.
To remember the dead, as we do every year at this time, is to give us confidence in striving for peace and resolute in protecting and holding it. Remembrance does remind us of the awful cost but that the greater cause, however painful, is sometimes worth the sacrifice. We must be prepared to fight, when necessary, for a moral world, a world where evil and aggression is always confronted, deterred and if necessary, defeated.
And amidst this task, our annual Remembrance, becomes our redemption. In honouring the fallen, we do not glorify war but rather affirm that even in humanity’s darkest hours, the capacity for sacrifice, love, and hope endures.
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