I Accuse the Church and the State
God is not the truth- the Truth is god
Just Another Man
A Story of the Nazi Massacre of Kalavyrta
Bedtime Stories
Musings of a Cynic
Andy's Other Writings ...
- An anti-war speech given at the dedication of the Kalavyrta Memorial
Kalavryta Memorial Dedication -
A Speech by Andy Varlow
Your Eminence Metropolitan, Honorable Governor, Honorable Mayor Polkas, Friends and Countrymen
Today we dedicate a statue of a woman dragging the dead body of her husband as her two young children with tears and pain are looking on. Since the morning of the 14th of December 1943 this horrible image has haunted me. Barely eleven years old then, walking up to the hill of the slaughtered to search for my own father, I encountered hundreds of maddening scenes much like the one depicted by this statue—women and children drenched in blood hauling their loved ones on shredded blankets to bury them in the cemetery, all the while crying in chorus of man’s inhumanity to man.
Fifty-five years later, because good has triumphed over evil, we are gathered here today to retell the world that love is greater than hate, and to demand that differences between nations be resolved with pens and paper on negotiating tables instead of bullets and machine guns in battle fields. All wars are dishonorable, shameful and cruel to the blameless masses who suffer the pangs of arm-bearing conquerors —no matter how brief such a subjugation may be.
This statue obliquely named “No More Wars” then, will stand, not only as a reminder of the Nazi atrocities upon blameless civilians, but as a warning to all future generations that wars are evil. Friends, let us hope that every person who casts his eyes on this statue will walk away, not with a heavy-hearted resignation and stoical acceptance of man’s cruelty to man, but with a reawakened urgency to scream and shout to one’s peers and leaders that contemporary man has risen above his savage instincts; that modern man demands the abolishment of all armed conflicts. Blood need not soil humanity’s path to betterment and excellence because we now accept deep inside our hearts that each and every human being regardless of his color or creed, has the right to be born, to live, and to die free.
May the memory of those fallen in 1943 remain vivid in the minds of present and future generations. Thank you.
