Lest We Forget

From the Veteran's Affairs Website

Today is important. Today is Remembrance Day, also called Armistice Day, or Veteran’s Day if you’re in America. The point is, today is the anniversary of the day that World War One ended. On the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, at 11 that morning, the war was officially over. When you take everything into account, about ten million people were killed in active military duty in the four years of war, and many more were wounded. It’s a shame. It really is. And we can’t let them be forgotten.

I haven’t missed a Remembrance Day ceremony yet, because it’s important to me. I don’t really talk about the profound effect that the military has had on my life personally very often. I was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets for six years, and continue to volunteer with them to this day. The experiences and opportunities I’ve had with them would not have been possible without the support of Canada’s military. Without the organisation and budget they provided to improve and educated kids just like me, I wouldn’t be who I am today. On top of that, both of my grandfathers, whom I consider to be personal heroes of mine, were World War Two veterans. My eldest brother is currently in the US Army, and is enjoying a nice break stateside before returning for a third year in Afghanistan. My connections aren’t really unique. Nearly everyone I know has a relative or friend who served in the military, either in the past or currently.

Right now, in Canada, we are losing our veterans at a rate of about 500 per week. This is one of those things where if we don’t value them now, they’re really truly going to be gone tomorrow. I volunteer a little bit at a long-term care facility specifically for veterans. It’s one of the most rewarding experiences, because I get to know these people who have amazing stories and amazing memories, before it’s too late.

The Remembrance Day ceremonies themselves are always awful. It’s frigid, there’s a lot of standing still, and they’re generally solemn, they go on for too long, and are not a lot of fun, especially for the twelve –year-old cadets we bring along. At the same tie though, the hour or two I spend there is incredibly meaningful, and is an important tradition that I hope will be passed on as we start to lose our veterans. It’s a reality that within the next few years, those men and women from WWI and WWII will be gone. We can’t let them be forgotten.

There's a couple of poems that are particularly poignant on this day, the first being In Flanders Fields, by John MacRae, which is where the tradition of the poppy stems.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
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.

The other is the poem that is repeated at countless ceremonies. It's an excerpt from Binyon's poem For the Fallen.

They shall not grow old, 

As we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, 

Nor the years condemn.

With the going down of the sun, 

And in the morning,

We will remember them.

I'm doing the big push to exams now, so I'll be touch and go for the next week or so, but I felt like today was important. Hope to talk to you again soon. :)