Amristice Day

I am writing this on November 11th, Armistice Day.

This morning Fr. Ross Bell at Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church gave an excellent sermon on this very subject, which I suspect moved many of the congregation. It certainly moved me and left me with many thoughts.

Ross talked about a visit to Dachua Concentration camp, with the words 'Never Forget' on one of its memorial. This made me think of the Anti-Nazi League slogan, 'Never Again', which made me realise, this hasn't really stopped... so there is no holocaust on the industrial scale of the Nazis, but people are still oppressed for their views, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and so on.

I also thought of the Manic Street Preachers' song, "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next", their tribute to the members of the International Brigades who fought for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War. This made me think, of among other things, the situation in Burma. Do we tolerate this and will our children be next?

Ross also talked of the men and women who died for freedom on the battlefield (or in the air). He said that he uses this freedom to be himself, which I can testify he does and so should we... any good sermon raises the question, 'How then should we live?' in response to God's Word and how the Spirit moves us. Ross's sermon also pointed to this, in the call to be yourself as God has made you. Ross also talked of the need to work towards peace, not just the absence of war but pointed to current events like Pakistan and Burma requiring our response.

I personally believe we are all called to some level of civic involvement in this sense, but in different ways. One of the ways in which I do this is in politics, though the Labour Party and related organisations. However, I have also decided to renew my involvement in Amnesty International www.amnesty.org.uk.

Writing letters for Amnesty is a good way to do something, but there are other things people can do. You could campaign for Friends of the Earth, or Greenpeace. Fund raise for Oxfam or Save the Children, or volunteer in one of their shops. Alternatively, you could help provide services to the homeless.

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On another note, David Cameron recently announced the launch of the Conservative Co-operative Movement. As the Co-operative Movement in the UK has been associated with the Left and the Co-op Party is affiliated to the Labour Party, this came as something of a surprise.

Conservatives tend to believe in private ownership and running services for profit, Co-operators believe in mutualism and running organisations for its members, i.e. the consumers or employees or both.

So why the change of Tory heart? It seems Cameron believes public services, like education, should be ran as mutuals... I doubt very much the Conservative Co-operative Movement will adopt the Co-op Party policy in favour of mutual ownership of monopoly utilities, for example.