No Subject

11 November 2001
We Remember

I am always very moved on Remembrance Sunday here in the U.K. This is a day
when we remember all those Service men and women who have died in past
conflicts. Many brave people died to keep self-indulgent guitar manipulators
like me free to practice an almost unnecessary art.

This year it is all the more poignant, with the New York Fire Service
represented. Among our own Fire Service veterans was 85 year old Mitzi
Spooner. She was just on the radio talking about driving a Fire Engine (Fire
Truck) during the last war in the regular bombing Blitzes carried out by the
Germans over London.

What is often forgotten, and possibly not regarded seriously when portrayed
in movies like Pearl Harbor, is how fighter planes were often used to
machine gun those trying to rescue people from the burning rubble. Mitzi
spoke of being attacked by German planes while she was driving to fight
fires. What stirs my heart is the naive and unquestioning bravery of those
who battle to put things right after any Holocaust. They have no time to
question the ethics or morality of war or terrorism, they just have to get
on with trying to clean up the mess.

Men and women who have died in dozens of conflicts before and during my
lifetime deserve to be remembered and honoured today.

- Pete Townshend