December 25th 1914, the machine guns had been shredding young man after young man, the machine of war based on nothing but flags and what nation you belonged to stopped, the British awoke on Christmas morning to a beautiful German baritone singing 'silent night, holy night' and the metal hornets of war went quiet and slowly just because of an idea, just because Christmas meant peace, love and fraternity both the German and British sides arose out of their trenches, they exchanged food, tried to learn each others language and even played football...
all because of an idea
in WW1 the enemy was not the men you shot at in the other trenches it was the hierarchy of the military saying 'if you don't go over the top you will be charged with dereliction of duty and shot, your wife will get no war widows pension, your family will starve and your wife and children ostracized, but if you go over the top there's the minutest chance you will survive and even if you die we will take care of your family' so what choice did they have?
but on December the 25th the metal stopped flying, the gas stopped, the shelling stopped and for an idea, the idea of peace, the idea that this was the winter solstice or the birth of Christ, they terrified the command on both sides and stopped the horrific killing; they drank, sang, ate and played football together, an idea stopped systematic murder, the nihilistic combine harvester of young men...just an idea, just because one German man begun to sing silent night announcing the peace of just an idea.
i offer this idea to everyone this Christmas and new years.
all because of an idea
in WW1 the enemy was not the men you shot at in the other trenches it was the hierarchy of the military saying 'if you don't go over the top you will be charged with dereliction of duty and shot, your wife will get no war widows pension, your family will starve and your wife and children ostracized, but if you go over the top there's the minutest chance you will survive and even if you die we will take care of your family' so what choice did they have?
but on December the 25th the metal stopped flying, the gas stopped, the shelling stopped and for an idea, the idea of peace, the idea that this was the winter solstice or the birth of Christ, they terrified the command on both sides and stopped the horrific killing; they drank, sang, ate and played football together, an idea stopped systematic murder, the nihilistic combine harvester of young men...just an idea, just because one German man begun to sing silent night announcing the peace of just an idea.
i offer this idea to everyone this Christmas and new years.
