At lunch today, I saw a big banner. I think it was hanging on the ATC building. It said: "Remembrance Day - Lest We Forget" A fairly common notion this time of year, to be sure.
But seeing that phrase at that moment got me thinking out loud, which caused DaveS and myself to spend a few useless minutes wondering out loud. What I thought was "will there be a day when the word 'lest' is no longer used?" DaveS assured me it would be around for the rest of our lives at least. I figured that, for the people who are/will be confused by 'lest', we'll one day change 'lest' to 'in case'. In Case We Forget.
Wondering about the appropriateness of that word led to the perceived appropriateness of the whole phrase.
In the end, we decided that the word "lest" would remain forever, but "we forget" would succumb to various interest groups and political correctness.
"We" is far too inclusive a word. What about those people/groups who prefer to forget, or who accidentally forget? Surely there are anti-veterans groups around. Should they be forced to be included under the blanket-umbrella of 'we'? Surely not.
And what about the term "forget". Couldn't the implication of forgetting be hurtful to those who do forget?
How about this as an alternative to Lest We Forget:
Lest Those People Who Knowingly And Willingly Make An Effort Not To Be Memory-Challenged In Regard To The Remembrance Of Those Who Were Or Are Impacted By Either National/International Combative Situations And/Or Peaceful Representation Of And For Their Country Do In Fact Become Memory-Challenged In This Regard.
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