A “ SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE” SEGMENT
I remember hearing that Slaughterhouse-Five title many years ago, but I never really learned until recently that it was a novel and a movie story about war. Specifically, according to its website, “a satirical novel, written in 1969 by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier named Billy Pilgrim.”
And then I located this following account of one intriguing scene where Billy Pilgrim “slumps drowsily in front of a TV to watch the late movie, an old WWII flick about American bombers making raids over Germany. But as he watches, he gets groggier, and he begins to see the movie running backwards:
“American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses, took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.“The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. . .
“When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States, where factories were operating day and night, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.”
WOW! What a unique thought! Reduce and hopefully eliminate the destructive wrongs in our world by backing up and squelching their beginnings peacefully (nonviolently)!!
If possible, that would certainly cut back on such experiences as the nasty and harmful words often exchanged in families and between neighbors, the senseless road rage incidents, the unkind rumors begun by thoughtless people, and drastically reduce the slaughtering done in wartime battles.
Well, I can dream (and pray) for better ways of solving our differences, can’t I? It’s obvious that those of us, who are part of the body of Christ, have a responsibility to do that which we have been shown by our Master is that “better way.”
Phil Lersch, Facilitator
BRETHREN PEACE INITIATIVE
