I resisted temptation, yesterday, and did not comment on this article, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from yesterday’s
Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081103.wduckworth03/BNStory/National/
Honouring a life that continues to be devoted to peace
Hundreds gather in Halifax to celebrate the 100th birthday of Canadian activist and icon Muriel Duckworth
OLIVER MOORE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
November 3, 2008 at 4:27 AM EST
HALIFAX — Before joining the thousand-plus people gathered to celebrate her 100th birthday, activist Muriel Duckworth grabbed the opportunity to scold a reporter.
"I don't think the media pay enough attention to the peace movement," she said, fixing him firmly with a steady gaze. "War is news, peace isn't news."
Her voice was reduced to a whisper but the message was urgent as ever.
"You can have a presence and you can work toward peace," she said. "Join, for heaven's sake. Don't just sit there and complain."
A pacifist for decades, Ms. Duckworth said she does not despair in the face of the bloody toll that wars continue to wreak.
"I have a sign in my living room that says 'Hope' with large letters," she said. "We all have to have hope and live positively as if it can happen."
Moments later, she joined the horde of like-minded people gathered in downtown Halifax. For more than an hour, she received the praises of a steady stream of well-wishers; many said they did not know her personally, but were inspired by her example.
"Since the seventies, all I've heard about is Muriel Duckworth and all the great things she's done," said Sandra Whitehead, who had met her only once before. "I don't think there's anyone who could stay home when they could help her celebrate 100 years."
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who encountered an early burst of winter weather en route to Halifax, admitted she almost turned back. But she couldn't miss the opportunity to congratulate her old friend.
"Muriel's 100th is a good reason to focus again on the peace movement," she said. "When citizens are sufficiently engaged, governments respond.
"When our attention is distracted, the risk of the issue getting ignored gets quite serious."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay also stopped by, bearing birthday wishes from the House of Commons and praising Ms. Duckworth for having "done so much for our province."
She accepted his gesture graciously, in spite of her fierce opposition to the war in Afghanistan.
Other political figures paid tribute, including provincial NDP Leader Darrel Dexter and former federal leader Alexa McDonough. But the day wasn't about politicians. It was a celebration of a woman's conclusion decades ago that, in her words: "War is stupid."
Ms. Duckworth doesn't make the distinction between "good" and "bad" wars.
She opposed them all. She split from the United Church over its refusal to condemn the Vietnam War. Along with her late husband Jack, she opposed the Second World War, even before her younger brother died fighting in it.
"My mother and father, of course, supported the war and they were very upset when we didn't," she explained in a four-year-old article posted at rabble.ca.
"My mother used to get very angry about that. It was hard to defend pacifism during the Second World War. I could do it better now than I could then."
Ms. Duckworth helped establish the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, an anti-poverty coalition, and was a founding member of the provincial branch of Voice of Women (VOW). She also served as national president of VOW from 1967 to 1971.
In the 1970s, she was one of the first women in Nova Scotia to run for provincial office. And in 1994, she and friends protested the G-7 meeting in Halifax, the first appearance of the Raging Grannies.
Her views have been ridiculed by some but she has also received numerous honours for her firm stance.
Ms. Duckworth was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 1983 and received the Pearson Medal of Peace in 1991. She has picked up a hatful of honorary doctorates.
The Second World War was, pretty much,
sui generis: there was an absolutely compelling reason that
required us to go to war, and that
required committed pacifists like Duckworth and
Woodsworth, even as they opposed all wars, to join in that one – as brave non-combatants, if need be. We knew the reason – in fact the same
Globe and Mail republished, during the year 2000, a front page from many, many of its 20th century editions. In early Nov they published a page from Nov 38 showing, above the fold and with a big headline, the after-effects of
Kristallnacht. Canadians
knew what the Germans planned and while pacifism was, and still is, understandable, failing to do everything in one’s power – even giving one’s life – to defeat Hitler’s barbaric regime was not.
Here, also reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s
Globe and Mail is another letter to the editor showing us that:
• Duckworth was wrong; and
• Not all Germans were barbarians:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081104.COLETTS04-8/TPStory/Opinion/letters
Not the war to defend pacifism
MURRAY SAGER
November 4, 2008
Victoria -- Muriel Duckworth is a difficult target, being both a pacifist and a centenarian, but I'd be most interested in hearing her "improved" defence of pacifism during the last war (Honouring A Life That Continues To Be Devoted To Peace - Nov. 3).
What possible practical alternatives to opposing Nazism, or what historical counterfactuals might she offer to convince us pacifism could have been a rational response?
She and Globe readers might want to consider the fate of Sophie Scholl, another young woman with strong beliefs about that war. She understood the need to oppose Hitler, and as a 21-year-old student at the University of Munich, distributed anti-war pamphlets with her brother Hans and Christoph Probst. With no hope of support or the luxury of indulging in pacifism, their actions led to execution by beheading.
Among her last words were: "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up to a righteous cause ... what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"
People can choose pacifism – that’s one of those fundamental rights I keep harping about – and it is our duty to
defend that right. But pacifism does not mean that one is excused resisting evil when it confronts us. Pacifists must be brave enough to die for their fellow men and women or they are simply oxygen thieves.
