I went to see a performance of the classic play Oh What a Lovely War last night. It was held to commemorate the start of the First World War.
It was an excellent production by Kendal Community Theatre. Despite it being over 30 degrees celsius in the Castle Street Centre the cast performed with energy and enthusiasm. They donned greatcoats and caps and enacted the lives and deaths of men in the trenches; reflected on the decisions of their foolish leaders.
It was held to commemorate the start of the First World War, exactly a century ago. The play was a comment on the horrors of the war and the dreadful mistakes made by generals and politicians. Despite being loaded with songs and music it was a sad observation on the loss of millions of lives in a pointless war.
At the end of it I felt saddened but relieved to be in a time when we don't have face such atrocities. No young British men will be enlisted to fight in the trenches.
Then I read the newspaper and was reminded of the plane shot down over the Ukraine. The weekly deaths of children in Gaza. Iraq and Afghanistan.
Do we ever learn?
It seems not.