There is a set of lines in Dr. John McCrae’s famous First World War wartime poem “In Flanders Fields” that each one of us should ponder at this time of year.
Chances are, something of that poem is battering around in your head as you read this, most likely the very first lines: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Beneath the crosses, row on row.”
But that’s only one of the lines we should remember.
The next few lines simply and eloquently speak of those who lie below the crosses. “We are the dead: Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow/Loved and were loved: and now we lie/In Flanders fields.”
It’s important that we remember that, too; that many of those who died for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today were perilously young, sent to war, as always, by generals and politicians who are, for the most part, far from the front and with far less to lose.
But those are not the only lines you should remember, either.
The poem ends with a call to action — a message that says that the deaths of much of a generation should not be wasted or simply set aside.
We have to stand for honesty, generosity and fairness, to uphold individual human rights and freedoms, to help the oppressed and ease the burden of those who live in fear.
“Take up our quarrel with the foe/To you, from failing hands, we throw/The torch: be yours to hold it high/If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”
It may not have meant as much during the battle of empires that was the First World War as it came to mean during the horrors of Nazi Germany and the Second World War.
“In Flanders Fields” says that we have a job to do, too.
We still have a duty to fight fascism, hate and intolerance — even when it grows among us like weeds.
We have to stand for honesty, generosity and fairness, to uphold individual human rights and freedoms, to help the oppressed and ease the burden of those who live in fear. We have much, and others have little; sometimes we have to spread our arms wide, inside of simply hugging all of what we have to our chests.
The harsh truth is that to fight evils means being actively involved — taking up the torch.
Not just on social media comment boards, not on one day a year in front of any one of many cenotaphs.
These are dark days, days when hate seems to be ascending once again.
And if that poem is not enough to move you to action, try this quotation from Pastor Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist./Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.…”
Look it up if you don’t remember how that one ends.
