On this day a hundred years ago, having been treated for “shell shock” — as PTSD was then called — and returned to the front lines, the iconic poet Wilfred Owens was killed in action only days before the Armistice ending WW1.
His words, mostly written during his treatment, formed the striking picture of that war that today — short of having had the privilege of knowing one of the vanishingly few remaining veterans of it — provides the greatest and truest insight into its horrors that current generations will ever find. It was called, optimistically, the war that would end wars. Sadly, as we know, the following generation found itself also called to take up arms against a would-be conquering power, one backed by perhaps the greatest expression of genuine evil history has ever seen. These two great conflicts were, at their heart, resistances to the forces of nationalism, parochialism and tribalism, evil men reaching out to inflict their will on other peoples and other nations by the power of the sword.
Today you play your part in that same conflict.
And all you need is a pen, a lever or a touchscreen.
The marks you make today have the potential to be as powerful as every letter that flowed from Wilfred Owen’s pen.
Be worthy of them.