war

I'm about an hour and a half into saving private ryan. It just got to the bit where he tells everyone he's a school teacher. This reminded me of a story this old guy out at site told me. This guy is about 70, and I spent the better part of a day in a car with him driving around the pilbara. He told me a lot of stuff. One of the things he told me regarded his father. His father, it seems, was a school teacher. When the war came, like most young men, he wanted to do his bit for his country and tried to enlist. Apparently every time he enlisted he was refused, with them saying they needed school teachers more than soldiers. Apparently he eventually lied about his occupation to get into the armed forces, but when they eventually found out he was a school teacher he was kicked out. So here's this poor guy, wanting to do his part for his country, being refused. Then of course, while everyone else is at war, here's this guy still around, teaching the children. Apparently he'd constantly be receiving white feathers in the mail. For the uninformed, this means that everyone thought he was a coward because while everyone else was off fighting the war, this guy was still around.

How fucked up is that? I can't imagine, just how fucked that'd be. I just felt like sharing that, cause I think it's one of those things... people need to know about that sort of stuff. I own many war movies. I like watching them...... not because I think war is great, but I think it's important to remind ourselves just how fucked up war really is, understand it, relate to it. If only politicians could really grasp it... then maybe they wouldn't be so quick to sacrifice lives that aren't their own over conflicts and interests that aren't their own.