Remembrance Day
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada. It is a day set aside to pay honour to War Veterans and those who have fallen in battle. Ever since I was a kid, its been engrained in me to take part in the day's festivities, as well as wear a poppy on my lapel.
As I got older, I guess I started to think more critically. I mean, I always still wore my poppy and also observed the moment of silence (at 11:11 on the 11th in the 11th month), but I started thinking about what we were really paying honour to.
I don't agree with war.
And I think most people wear a poppy because its the thing to do and they don't want to look like an insensitive prick for not wearing one. Or, its a political choice too (I almost took down a crowd of people when the TV personality I was in charge of WASN'T wearing a poppy 5 seconds to air time and I ran to stab one on his chest.)
I always hear peace activists say that they support the soldiers, but not the war. Sometimes I don't get that - how can you support a soldier but not a war?
For me, it helps to think of the faces of soldiers that look like my own but older. How many of our Lolos (and Lolas?) are veterans of the same wars that we don the poppy for?
Honour the Canadian soldiers, but don't forget that when there is a war, there are people affected on both sides.
Today, I also remember THIS.
As I got older, I guess I started to think more critically. I mean, I always still wore my poppy and also observed the moment of silence (at 11:11 on the 11th in the 11th month), but I started thinking about what we were really paying honour to.
I don't agree with war.
And I think most people wear a poppy because its the thing to do and they don't want to look like an insensitive prick for not wearing one. Or, its a political choice too (I almost took down a crowd of people when the TV personality I was in charge of WASN'T wearing a poppy 5 seconds to air time and I ran to stab one on his chest.)
I always hear peace activists say that they support the soldiers, but not the war. Sometimes I don't get that - how can you support a soldier but not a war?
For me, it helps to think of the faces of soldiers that look like my own but older. How many of our Lolos (and Lolas?) are veterans of the same wars that we don the poppy for?
Honour the Canadian soldiers, but don't forget that when there is a war, there are people affected on both sides.
Today, I also remember THIS.