100 Years On

As today marks 100 years since Britain entered the First World War, I thought I'd commemorate it with a little post, out of respect. I still find it kind of hard to believe just how many innocent people, men in particular, from all countries died as soldiers on the battle front and the suffering that those who survived this awful, awful event had to endure with some even going on to fight in World War Two. a couple of decades later.

I know that two of my great grandads fought in WW1 and they both survived, and I think that's pretty incredible and I'm so proud of them, but I find it so strange how an awful lot of people all over the world have relatives only a couple of generations back who fought during the war. It's something that seems to tie us all together and unifies us as people, regardless of where we come from or who's side our relatives were on. It's something that affects and links us all, even now in 2014.

As an 18 year old girl growing up in Britain 100 years on, I am all to aware that if I had been born exactly 100 years previously I would be part of the generation that the war devastated the most. It would be all my male friends and classmates that signed up and died, and all because their fellow humans couldn't think of a better, more effective, peaceful and mature way to deal with their problems.

Because the country in which they were born and raised urged them to sign away their lives with the flick of a pen with promises of eternal heroism and the guilt of patriotism, to fight a battle that really wasn't theirs but that of a select few people who happened to have entire nations in their grasp and control and command. Because some people thought that war, and all the fighting, destruction and killing it brings with it was the answer. Because some people forgot what humanity is, and how precious and beautiful life is and took it away from so many innocent people because they didn't know any better way of solving their problems.

I feel lucky that I was born when I was, and I wish that all those innocent people who died were born when I was too, a 100 years later, because they would have had the chance to live their lives, lives that should have been lived and enjoyed and celebrated. I wish that I could go back in time and save them all, every single last one of them from every country that fought, or that I could do something to make sure that that war didn't happen in the first place. And sometimes I wonder what would have happened if everyone across the world had turned on the higher powers and said no, we don't want a war, we don't want to fight, we want to live our lives and live them in peace, because what are those powers without their people?

I don't understand why it's so hard for humans to be civil, to respect and to love one another, to live in peace, to talk and communicate and work out our differences without killing and hurting one another. Why can't we accept that even if we have different beliefs and ideas and ways of doing things, we're all still people, no matter what country we live in, no matter what our traditions, no matter what we may look like. We are all the same. We are all one.

In my opinion, this war, and the one after it, should not have happened. War, and death, and fighting, and weapons, and killing, is never the answer and never ever was or will be. All those lives from all across the world should not have been lost. Those with power let the rest of mankind down with their actions and the wrong people paid the price, and people still continue to feel the weight of those actions 100 years later. And I know we can't go back in time, and I know that what's done is done, but I also know that I am growing up in a world that has been shaped by that war, and in particular by people who should have learnt the lessons from that war, and all the wars that came after it but haven't. I may only be 18, and I may have been born 100 years later, but if I can see the message and the lessons quite evidently, and adamant not to make the same mistakes, then why can't the world around me?

So with that, I'd like to pay my respects to all the people, across the world, who fought and suffered and endured and sacrificed and lived and died not just in this war but any war. You are heroes, and always will be, and in my opinion, that's not because you fought a war or defended your country, but because you were brave enough to endure and confront mankind at its absolute worst. 

<3