This is a rumination after being subjected (voluntarily, I know) to media coverage of Remembrance Day here in Canada.

I have always believed in the idea that we must study history in order to understand our present, and so we don't repeat our most grievous actions (so called 'mistakes'). Until this November 11th, that is. This strikes even me as naive in the extreme, but there it is . . .

Listening to the radio, watching TV, everything about wars, remembering, the horrible, horrible things we humans do to each other. In the fairly recent past it was soldiers who killed and died fighting. Now civilians, most of whom would rather have peace than war, are being killed in huge, disproportionate numbers.

Why did we fight the Second World War? To save the Jews, the gays, the Gypsies, and everyone else Hitler et al. were murdering? No, because we the 'developed' didn't let in those who were being killed. One whole boatload traveled the world, and no one took them. Oh yes, France did, but then they wound up getting slaughtered anyway, because they were back in occupied Europe.

Fast forward. Here we are today, a world at war. Canada in Afghanistan. U.S and U.K. in Iraq and Afghanistan. India and Pakistan in Kashmir. LTTE in Sri Lanka. Israel in Palestine. U.S. in Palestine. Canada's mining companies all over the 'developing' world, raping and pillaging the land, ignoring those who live on it in our greed to get the gold, bauxite, etc. (Canada's Barrick Gold actually wanted to relocate a glacier in Chile?!)

There was a war to end all wars almost one hundred years ago. Then there was another war with a holocaust that we 'remember' so it never happens again. But it happened again (Rwanda, Sierra Leone), it's happening again now (Darfur), and it's happening now (Palestine--and has been for some time). And it's happening again now (Uganda), and now (Burma), and now (Cote d’Ivoire), and now . . .

Holocaust museums have been built to help us remember. TV programs, education programs, marches, rallies, lectures, prayer gatherings, help us remember.

I think we humans have an enormous defect. We don’t WANT to remember. We have learned nothing from the past. We are still at war. We still settle our quarrels militarily. We still dream up new ways to kill each other with 'better' weapons. I just learned that British Aerospace has actually developed 'green' weapons!

We have weapons that can wipe out our entire human population. We have weapons that keep on exploding, and weapons that lie dormant until a child steps on them. We have weapons that are supposed to hit one target but hit another. We have liars who run our governments, and we voted them in. Is our most insidious weapon ourselves?

Twenty-five or more years ago scientists warned that our rivers, lakes, land, trees, and air were becoming polluted. Kyoto tried to help. But we the 'developed' didn't listen; we merrily continued to consume, pollute, and enjoy corporate domination. If we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps we might be able to sustain life on our planet, but it's more likely that we have ruined it irreversibly. This is also war.

Ed Bradley died a few days ago. A dear cousin died this morning. My father died almost two years ago. A former TM colleague (56 years old) died last Monday. They are the lucky ones. Lucky because they won't have to live through the devastation.

Penguins are losing their habitat – both because of global warming and because the fish they eat are disappearing. Tigers and elephants and many other animals, insects, birds and plants are in the same boat. They are the unlucky ones because they have no choice.

Cockroaches are multiplying. Perhaps they will evolve to benevolently govern our planet.

Yet we must continue to try to eradicate poverty, even though there will probably be little for the newly less-poor to live for. We must continue to educate, even though it's likely schooling will be unnecessary in a desolate world. We must continue to try to care. It's a big job.

And the crazy thing is that we will do it knowing that history will indeed repeat itself, and that our planet will soon not be able to support human habitation. But we have to do everything we can anyway. What else can we do?