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The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Lest we forget.
As is typical for Rememberance Day, CBC radio had an interview with a veteran about war, and going to talk to schools about wars.
One of the things the interviewer asked the vet was something along the lines of "As time goes on, in the next 20-25 years, all the people who fought in those wars (WW1 and WW2) will be gone - what do you think will happen to Rememberance Day when that happens?"
What struck me about the differeance between those wars and the wars we've been in in my lifetime is that, from a certain point of view, WW2 was perhaps the last war that one can be entirely proud of having fought in. (One might arguably include Korea in that group). Social attitudes towards warfare in Canada have shifted considerably, as has media coverage of war, and the premise of going to war to "fight evil" seems to ring a little hollow. Most people seem to know why the Gulf War was fought, and why the current war is being fought. It seems to me that Vietnam, even though Canada didn't send troops, was a tipping point - after Vietnam, it was no longer a given that the public would support a war. It was no longer just a small collection of radicals and weirdos who spoke out against war.
The vet, in the interview, said that one of the things they try to impress on kids is that war is not a fun thing. I think, perhaps, that the events of the past ten years have shown that we have forgotten the lessons we should have been learning. War is not a toy.
Lest we forget.
As is typical for Rememberance Day, CBC radio had an interview with a veteran about war, and going to talk to schools about wars.
One of the things the interviewer asked the vet was something along the lines of "As time goes on, in the next 20-25 years, all the people who fought in those wars (WW1 and WW2) will be gone - what do you think will happen to Rememberance Day when that happens?"
What struck me about the differeance between those wars and the wars we've been in in my lifetime is that, from a certain point of view, WW2 was perhaps the last war that one can be entirely proud of having fought in. (One might arguably include Korea in that group). Social attitudes towards warfare in Canada have shifted considerably, as has media coverage of war, and the premise of going to war to "fight evil" seems to ring a little hollow. Most people seem to know why the Gulf War was fought, and why the current war is being fought. It seems to me that Vietnam, even though Canada didn't send troops, was a tipping point - after Vietnam, it was no longer a given that the public would support a war. It was no longer just a small collection of radicals and weirdos who spoke out against war.
The vet, in the interview, said that one of the things they try to impress on kids is that war is not a fun thing. I think, perhaps, that the events of the past ten years have shown that we have forgotten the lessons we should have been learning. War is not a toy.
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