Flashback 1944

I was watching a news clip from the CNN war zone and without trying my mind jumped backwards to 1944. This summer Theresa and I visited Cape Breton and my home town, and we stopped the car along the shores of Sydney Harbour. I got out and surveyed the landscape and the ruins of a once vital defence station during WWII. I was surprised to see the foundations of the naval guns still intact and the living quarters underground there where they were 66 years ago.

As a young child I remember clearly the naval gun placements along the shore line in Sydney Harbour, and along Lockman's beach in particular. During the war there was a huge net across the harbour entrance, opened and closed by two small tugboats to guard against enemy intrusions. One day I was on the beach with my Dad when one of the huge naval gun fired a shell out into the ocean; a practise round, but it scared me and shook the ground around us. Dad explained their need and said to be unafraid. That same day on the way home with a load of shore coal, we passed a bog where parachutes were dropped from a plane and soldiers were firing machine guns at these miniature chutes. We even got one and took it home.

That evening I talked to my Mom about the war and all the noise and war activity, and during our talk there was a blackout signalled by a siren. This took the war close to home and for years after I played in the old war facilities along our shore and wondered about war in general. Without a clear understanding of why there were wars, I began to formulate my feelings about aggression.

I was an aggressive young person, often engaged in fights and conflicts but never knew why. Years later I came to the conclusion that I was some of the problem, as I carried strong feelings about most things, and defended my beliefs with physical force on occasion. Perhaps my life was a microcosm of the world, and countries acted like people. As I was 8 years old at the time, that thought was good enough for then, but there were bigger issues and later in life I would explore them.

This problem we have with aggression in schools and in the world is of grave concern to me in my elder years. If only the UN could really take on the designed task and be the government of the world and solve those contentious issues before they become open conflict. I guess it is things that cannot be resolved like who owns the oil and diamonds and in the future, who owns the food and water.