Remembrance Day

[Madeleine]

Hello Perberts,

I've never posted a thread that wasn't in the advertising thread before, so I feel both a little preachy and a little geeky at the same time right now, posting this. But as a proud Canadian (15 years and counting), the granddaughter of war veterans, and the sister to a military man in Afghanistan, I thought I'd give you all the link to the Remembrance Day Ceremonies here in Vancouver and the rest of Canada.

You'll find them here: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/su...ents/events&event_date=2007-11-11&m=11&y=2007

And there is an amazing compendium of photos, film, and audio recordings on the Veteran's website. Listening to those is a private ceremony in itself, and fascinating both historically and emotionally. Here's the link:


<a href="http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/hrp"><img border=0 width=440 height=96 src="http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/content/collections/hrp/images/title_large_e.gif"></a>



I'll be dragging myself out of bed to go to the ceremony at Memorial South Park (900 East 41st), which ambles over to Mountain View cemetery two blocks away, where more than 12,000 Canadian military men and women, mostly under the age of 25, most from the two World Wars, are buried. Every grave has "Never Forgotten" or "Always Remembered" or "Lest We Forget" written upon it. And every year I see fewer and fewer visitors to those gravestones.

Most of the soldiers who served in the two big wars are gone now, but there are some still alive, and many from the Korean war. My heart breaks when I think of the vets visiting the graves with their epitaphs, and finding themselves alone in their honouring of the dead.

I don't agree with most war. I don't agree with Afghanistan, or Iraq, or what happened in Vietnam. As a Russian, I've got a few grudges against the military in general.

But these men went through great suffering, and either died during battle, or brought the mental scars of war home with them. Many of my brother's friends and comrades get home and find themselves unable to adjust to normal life again. Remembrance Day isn't about being rah-rah-for-war, it's about Never Again.

Sheesh. Hea-vy! Well, if you get out to the cemetery tomorrow, feel free to say hello to me. I'll be the one handing out kisses and 1920's Christian-friendly pin-up girl playing cards to the headstones and whispering,
"I'm sorry. Thank you for fighting for me. I remember you."

Peace,
Madeleine.

 

[sinfulsydnee]

Bravo!

thank you...not geeky or preachy at all...in fact, rather insipiring...personally, I appreciate your post very much...

 

[ladyluck]

Remeber them all

I two am one against war. But I am going to to take time to remember all those who lost their lives and fought for us.
I lost a dear friend last year (that was a 2nd world war veteren) to a selfish drug induced woman, who only wanted money, that he befriended. She stabbed my 82 yr old friend/ confidant.
I will be putting his memoriam in the paper on the actual day he died, stabbed on the 11th. And after a fight for his life, the 17th he passed.
He opened my eyes up to how much they did for us.
Everyone needs to take 2 minutes tomorrow at 11 am just for a moment of silence.
God rest all their souls.

 

[Sasha=Passion]

Thanks

Thank you for your post. I,toodon't believe in war but my father was a vet in the II World War and Korean. A few years ago, I was sitting with him and my mother also a veteran of the British Army(the stories that they've told!) watching Saving Private Ryan. I was affraid of this because I didn't know if they were going to have flash backs or something. But they sat quietly whispering back and forth. Finaly at the end of the movie he said " yep, it pretty much went down like that." I asked him why he never spoke about it and replied,"what was I going to say?" In that very moment he became my HERO. Every girl wants their father to be that. Thank you for giving me this moment to remember my DAD and share.






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