A Real Memorial

Today is, of course, Remembrance Day, and Berliners made at least an attempt to honor and remember the millions of dead and wounded in the Great War that ended eleven years ago today. This is not a day to debate the futility or purpose of the war. History will do so in time. It is rather the important task of today to remember the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends, relatives and neighbors who's lives were ended or forever scarred by the experience.

The City has erected a small monument to our "fallen sons" - the German ones we may presume. And this is both fitting and necessary. Today it was briefly a gathering place for those who wished to share their remembrance with others.  But as the silence ended, too often the remembrance did as well, and the talk returned to the parties, gatherings, shopping and other vital issues of the day.

It seems to me, having lost two parents, three brothers and a country to that idiotic waste of life, that while public memorials and expressions of sorrow have their place, that there is really only one memorial worthy of those who spent their blood so desperately - and it is not stone markers or fine speeches. Rather we remember, we honor, we memorialize our beloved lost by how we choose to live our lives today. Did they truly perish so that we could live lives of selfish accumulation, mindless parties and egoistic one-upsmanship?

If you want to honor the war dead, get about the business of society that they can no longer do. Buy a few less dresses and send the money to a worthy charity. Or better yet, go and give of your time, talent and your indignation. Skip the next self-aggrandizing tea at the Adlon and find something you can make better for others. Remember our dead by living well. Close a door so there is more coal for others to burn. Start a business so there is work for others to do.  Do something for someone else. Start to build a world our honored dead can be proud of.