Lest we don't forget....

In Tonbridge this morning I heard a very loud firework going off. "My God!" I thought to myself, ...."haven't we had enough of these ridiculously powerful rockets, bangers and air bombs going off for one year! Give it a rest lads will you!" Then a couple of minutes later an equally loud bang. Had some one been shot in the town centre? was it a lorry back firing? Is Tonbridge a terrorist target? Then I realised it was the two minutes silence which I'd just missed, although I don't think I said anything to myself anyway during that time, so I just about got away with it. They let off the cannon (although I think it is a big banger actually) at the Castle as a mark of respect for the fallen in the War To End All Wars. They tell us "Lest we forget!" "Pro Patria Mori" and other patriotic sounding phrases. We watch Wilfred Owen programmes on TV and suddenly become very thoughtful. All very well you may be thinking, you wouldn't have it any other way, those men made great sacrifices for us all so that we may have our freedom. I do agree with alot of that sentiment, don't get me wrong, but I cannot help thinking at this time that it will be better when enough time has passed and that all the people who served in WWI, and indeed WWII, and all their families, are just a distant memory in the minds of our ancestors, a bit like the Napoleonic Wars are to us now. Then we will truely put it behind us, the world might then be a safer place, and we will move on without dwelling on the inhumanty of men still within living memory....