Official Report 879KB pdf
Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our leader today is the Rev Dr Robin Hill, Church of Scotland minister of Gladsmuir, linked with Longniddry.
It is the afternoon of 11 November. This morning’s two-minute silence lies in the past, to remain dormant for another year. We still have our poppies. After all, it would be callous to bin them so soon after the event but, come tonight, bin them we will—-and why ever not? The calendar keeps turning and life moves on, as it always does, with the tartan of St Andrew’s day in the near future and then on to the red ribbon of world AIDS day at the start of the never-less-than-hectic month of December. We have done remembrance, so why not just let it go?
Well, here is why not. Across our world of stark division, voices are being raised in favour of private domestic self-interest over and against public international law. They are, in effect, suggesting that hubris, aggression and outright cruelty are necessary and acceptable elements of diplomacy in the 21st century. Those voices have got it wrong.
That is why, this evening, each one of us should take our poppy and fix it on to our computer screen, our bathroom mirror or any place at all where it cannot be ignored over the year to come. There, let our poppies serve each one of us, together, as year-long and year-round reminders of the violence and suffering that continue across this world of injustice and sorrow. It falls to the people of Scotland, as a peace-loving nation, to live justly and to live with courage as we strive for that which is right against that which is merely expedient.
Reminders are vital things, and we cannot afford to ignore our poppies when 12 November rolls around. Although “remembrance” is most definitely a noun, it is our duty to treat that word like the verb that we all need it to be. We do remembrance, and we must keep on doing remembrance for the sake of our humanity and our planet.
But what if we choose to forget? What then? Today, I find myself remembering my visit to the city of Berlin in March this year. I went on a casual stroll with my wife through the Brandenburg gate and on to the chic elegance of Unter den Linden. There, we chanced upon a poster bearing these simple but striking words:
“Auschwitz: not long ago; not far away”.
If, tonight, you remember anything, remember that.
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