Why War?

Our Shutterchance photoblog meet-up in England three Sundays ago was held at the Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford.   One of the exhibits was about the Vietnam War, showing the many war buttons and placards people in England (and America!) wore or carried, back in the 60s and 70s:

Hell No We Won’t Go
Make Love Not War
Ban the Bomb

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While out-n-about there in England, I was delighted to find a used copy of one of my favorite movies, the adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved “Where the Wild Things Are.”  When Astrid and I watched it last week I was reminded, with tears in my eyes, of one of its main taglines:

It’s hard being a family.

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The above image is a picture I took last year of a WWII war poster from the Clervaux Castle war museum on the Battle of the Bulge in northern Luxembourg (only the framing/border is added).  It asks one question:

Why?

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Back in 1932, Albert Einstein (the physicist) was invited by the League of Nations to reflect with someone of his choice on any issue of importance.  He chose Sigmund Freud (the psychoanalyst) and selected this question: “Is there any way of delivering humankind from the menace of war?”  Their exchange was published over 70 years ago in three languages and widely distributed throughout Western Europe under the title:

Why War?

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One of the first things I learned in Sunday School as a little girl was the shortest verse in the Bible (John 11:35), after Jesus heard about the death of his beloved friend, Lazarus:
 

Jesus wept.
 

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That reminds me of the soulful, mourning ballad of loss by Roy Orbison:

Crying Crying Crying.
I’ll always be crying over you.

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As America celebrates her federal Memorial Day today, commemorating the men and women who died while serving in her armed forces, I’m trying to connect many disconnected thoughts:

It’s hard to maintain peace.
Nothing about war makes sense. 
I hope we’re all crying.