{"id":1816,"date":"2011-11-08T09:43:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T16:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valianthosting.ca\/clients\/daemon\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2011-11-10T12:44:55","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T19:44:55","slug":"are-we-forgetting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/?p=1816","title":{"rendered":"Are we forgetting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2010 the last Canadian veteran of WWI passed away<\/a>; a moment in history that should have been stamped upon each of our memories. It\u2019s not. Many I\u2019ve encountered are not even aware this milestone has passed. The last survivor of a ghastly event in our history is gone. Aside from stories collected over the years, there is no one left to stand before us and remind us how horrific man can be towards his fellow man.<\/p>\n

\"Vimy
\nInscription on Vimy Ridge Canadian War Memorial<\/small><\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a child, Remembrance Day wasn\u2019t a holiday. If November 11 fell on a school day, we spent the day in classes, breaking to attend ceremonies at the nearest cenotaph. Some schools held Remembrance Day assemblies in addition to attending the cenotaph. When I was an air cadet, we left classes early to participate but returned to the normal school routine once the ceremonies were over. I don\u2019t recall when the change was made to provide us a day off on the 11\/11. Perhaps not until I\u2019d graduated and moved on to University. I\u2019m sure some of my old classmates can correct any errors in my memories of the time period.<\/p>\n

The ceremonies were somber. Often delivered on a cold day where the remaining WWI, WWII and Korean veterans quietly stood, as erect as possible, with dignity and determination. And tears in their eyes.<\/p>\n

By the time I reached high school, I remember being disturbed by the apparent lack of respect my generation had for both the day and the veterans who came to speak at our school and our cenotaphs. Poppies were often flung to the floor as soon as the day\u2019s assembly was over. I recall my horror at this casual attitude towards the poppy and all it represented as being the motivation behind my second place finish (provincial level) in the Royal Canadian Legion\u2019s writing contest. I mused then that we were beginning to forget; beginning to cease caring. I hoped I was wrong. 20 years on, I fear my younger self may have been on to something.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s a commentary on where I live, work and play, but I\u2019ve noticed a trend in who I see wearing poppies in my wanders these past few weeks; the elderly (not unexpected), visible minorities, and the marginalized (homeless, addicts, working poor, etc.). Those I would expect to be wearing poppies \u2013 businessmen and women, students (both k-12 and university\/college age), and middle aged \u2013 seem to be few and far between in my counts. That\u2019s not to say that no one in the previously mentioned categories is wearing poppies. I\u2019m just not encountering them often in my day-to-day routines.<\/p>\n

Wearing a poppy isn\u2019t about condoning wars. It isn\u2019t about glorifying one nation\u2019s soldiers over another\u2019s. It\u2019s about taking a few minutes to acknowledge that horrific things have happened in our past \u2013 and continue to happen on a daily basis in the present \u2013 brought on by greed, politics, ethnocentrism, gender bias and a host of other sources. It\u2019s about recalling that, on a regular basis, we have asked the impossible of our young men and women; generation after generation. We\u2019ve asked them to leave their homes, their families, their work, their futures and their sanity. For many, our politics have resulted in the sacrifice the soldier\u2019s and support worker\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Remembrance Day shouldn\u2019t be another holiday; a day off work or school to play or shop. It should be a somber reminder that when egos and icons become too big for their britches, we tend to ask too much of some of our citizens. And they deserve our acknowledgement and respect for answering the call time after time. Considering all they have given, a moment of silence to consider both what they\u2019ve gone through and what we expect of the current crop of soldiers is hardly too much to ask. Nor is wearing a poppy to display a visible reminder to those few WWII, Korean, and the ever growing new crop of Afghanistan war veterans that, for a moment in time, we appreciate and thank them for their service.<\/p>\n

I, for one, refuse to forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2010 the last Canadian veteran of WWI passed away; a moment in history that should have been stamped upon each of our memories. It\u2019s not. Many I\u2019ve encountered are not even aware this milestone has passed. The last survivor of a ghastly event in our history is gone. Aside from stories collected over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,30],"tags":[228,74,227,77,80],"class_list":["post-1816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frothing-at-the-bit","category-soldier-on","tag-canada","tag-poppy","tag-remember","tag-remembrance-day","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1816"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1857,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screamingpages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}