Canadians honour those who served
Tisdale - Saturday, November 10, 2012
In two more years (2014) it will be a full one hundred years, since the war began to end all wars. That was how the conflict that went from 1914 until November 11, 1918, at 11:00 AM, was called. It was then referred to as the "Great War" but for anyone who even just skimmed through accounts of that horrific war along the French and Belgium border, it is one of the most impressive examples I know of demonstrating the lack of respect for human life. World War I was fought primarily between soldiers and most of the fatalities were combat personnel. The war that began, for this country in 1939 ended in 1945, known as World War II, was "total war,” where civilian casualties occurred everywhere the battle grounds occurred and in so many cases in areas well away from the actual "front."
Those two wars are a blight on the twentieth century, but it did not end with the two world wars, but that century also witnessed the two massive revolutions, one in Russia and the other in China, that were essential civil wars, a civil war in Spain, a war between the divided Korean people, another between the divided Vietnamese people, wars of liberation in Burma, Kenya, Algeria, Belgium Congo, the division of India and the incredible non-shooting war called the "cold war,” that went on from the end of World War II until the dying days of the century.
Historians will give the twentieth century a name at some time in the future, that will identify this period of history and all people in the future will be ashamed of the behaviour of their species for what they did to one another. For it was not just war and rumours of war, but it was a time where people who had a particular ethnic background, or skin colour, or political beliefs, would be systematically killed. The killing excuses even included mental ability and the elimination of people with birth defects. Plainly, it was an uncivilized time in history.
Though this twenty-first century is quite young, we have already seen warfare between sizeable populations with ugly conflicts in Africa, civil wars in Sri Lanka, Somalia, Congo, Libya, Syria and a confusing number of brutal struggles between Muslims and most everyone else all around the Black Sea. From a historical standpoint, the wars of this century are resulting in exceptionally low numbers of fatalities. Where tens of thousands of Canadians died in each of the world wars, peace keeping and the recent war in Afghanistan have resulted in losses of just over two hundred. We as a species, may be improving, but with only twelve years into this century, maybe it is to soon to tell.
The people who respond to the call to serve Canada have always done so of their own volition. Canada did consider and implement conscription in the first war, but few of those actually went into combat. It is safe to say, that Canadians have willingly volunteered their lives for their country and by country, that means the Canadian way of life and the freedom of self determination by each and every citizen. The idea of placing ones self in harms way for the better good, is not only something Canadians have done time and time again, but continue to do so, because they know their participation will make things better and their clear intent is to preserve what we have as a way of life.
Each year the Royal Canadian Legion, made up of former members of Canadian armed forces, distribute poppies as a symbol to wear as an act of remembering those who not only were lost in the service of their country, but also for those who survived the service and carried with them, our debt of gratitude for their service, until they too, join their comrades. Tomorrow, at eleven o'clock, it is far more than respect that we are paying, as we pause in a minute of silence to contemplate the patriots and honour their service to we the citizens of this country.
But it would be a serious error on my part to discuss this topic, without demanding that we keep these people in mind when we consider the changes that threaten this country of theirs. As a kid each of us had to memorize the words of the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Dr. John McCrae. That poem was written there in the midst of that unthinkably cruel war and ends with "to you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields." We do not have freedom without responsibility.
We owe those remembered an enormous debt and when you choose not to take the time to vote in an election, be it federal, provincial or municipal, you are breaking faith. When you see law makers pushing forward laws and regulation that backtrack on the traditions of our Canadian culture and those enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and you do and say nothing to object to the backtracking, you are breaking faith. The shocking events of September 11, 2001 upset the people and governments of North America and laws and procedures were enacted that broke faith. Holding people without trial and with out charges, imprisoning a child and sending him to prison, ignoring torture and infringing on all people in the name of "security,” those are all acts of breaking faith.
Take time tomorrow to remember. It is not war we celebrate, it is the lives of those who undertook, on our behalf, action that resulted in their deaths, injury, or trauma, it is they who we remember, but do not lose sight of why, that makes all the difference.
