Thursday, November 11, 2010

Remembrance Day

First thing on this Remembrance Day, I have to thank all of the wonderful Canadian servicemen and women serving our country.  You are doing something for us that we can never repay.

Second, I have to post a picture of my brother.  He is 15 and in RCAC, or Royal Canadian Army Cadets.  He participated in our town's Remembrance Day ceremony today.  He stood at attention for more than an hour!  It was his first time wearing his new Master Corporal rank dress uniform, he just got promoted a couple months ago.  He is planning on applying to the Royal Military College after he is done high school. 

Remembrance day is supposed to be a day for remembering our fallen, from every conflict we've been involved in.  It makes me sad that more Canadians know about Afghanistan that Vimy Ridge.

Yes, I know that the Afghanistan conflict is in the news almost every day.  This goes further than that.  If I hadn't taken a world history elective in school, I don't think that either of the World Wars would have been mentioned.  I never learned about them in school other than that.  The only reason I did learn so much is because I took a personal interest. 

I want my daughter to be able to learn about these things.  I want the next generation to have a knowledge of it.  How are we supposed to prevent things like this from happening again if we don't learn about them in the first place?  I really think more of an emphasis needs to be put on teaching children about our world history, as bloody as it may be.  They are the leaders of tomorrow, and if we don't teach them about the past, then the past will become the future. 

3 comments:

  1. Your brother looks so proud! He looks great. But war is a sobering subject and it breaks my heart. But I was astounded to hear that we lost almost 200 soldiers in Afghanistan and they are talking about extending our stay there. I have very strong feelings about that and I cried everytime we lost someone, and often so young. I pray that one day they will look back on the past and say: we had not evolved enough yet, and that war is now a thing of the past.

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  2. I agree with you completely. I have such mixed feelings about him being in the Army Cadets. I'm so proud of him but so scared to lose him at the same time. I also think we shouldn't extend our stay in Afghanistan, but I also think we aren't the ones to decide. I think a general referendum among the soldiers over there and the Afghan veterans should decide the issue, they are the ones who would have to carry it out. Thanks so much for your comments!

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  3. It is a very important topic and I wish that politics were not involved. But sadly that is the case, too many times. I pray that we never have to see your brother leave Canada for any such mission. I can remember when Canadians were noted for their peace-keeping efforts and I wish that it was still the case. You're so right, it should be up to the warriors. Thanks again!

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