June 6, 2024. Eighty years since the massive Allied invasion on the shores of Normandy, and the numbers of those who participated are, naturally, shrinking.
What will happen when there’s no one left? The cemeteries will remain, other memorials will remain, but the tangible connection with the humans who were there will go away.
I don’t think we need to worry about forgetting. I was born 10 years after D-Day and I have the date locked in the memory banks. There are many more like me, and younger, who will remind anyone who cares to listen.
Then again, would it be so terrible if the memory starts to fade? So much of our energy is invested in remembering the past, and most often our warring past. “Never forget” is both honorable and burdensome, an obligation to regularly remind ourselves of the pain humans are capable of inflicting, and the unimaginable, rage-inducing losses, the need to sacrifice everything because some assholes somewhere have designs on ruling the world.
Of all the things money has been spent on over the millennia, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to learn that the expenses and costs of war top them all.
And the human cost is staggeringly abominable.
It would be refreshing to be able to turn a corner on always remembering, and instead spend more time planning for progress in a more peaceful direction. But what are the chances of that ever happening?
3 Cents' 