the pause that remembers
I'm having guppy days, which always prevent me from posting, but I'm finding that I have to post today anyway. I've just caught up on the various stories and comments on CO about Remembrance Day and wanted to get a few things out. I will start with the bad - I admit that while I always knew what it was about and respected that, I didn't actually give it the respect it deserved until I moved here to Ottawa, the capital of Canada. That shames me but I can't change the past. I blame it on youth.
I am proud that "In Flanders Fields" was written by a Canadian and is universally known
I was a little sad this year that I had to pin my poppy on myself
There are three Canadian WWI veterans left and there are discussions in the works to give the final one a state funeral, such as is usually reserved for Prime Ministers and Governors General
I am disgusted that Ontario does not recognize Remembrance Day as a statutory holiday, yet both federal and provincial governments choose to make it so for their own employees. The feds say that stat holidays are the domain of the provinces and I say this is a pathetic cop-out. I once wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper on this subject and was proud when it was splashed across the top of the editorial page without a word cut (it was a lengthy letter). I was also proud because my letter was a response to a group of Nova Scotia youth who had traveled to Ottawa to speak to the government specifically for this reason, even though it already is a stat holiday in Nova Scotia. This topic has been known to get me going for much longer than anyone cares to listen.
I refuse to go out and run errands today even though stores have been open since 12:30
Very few people know that tradition dictates you remove your poppy at 11:11am (or after any services you are attending) - here in Ottawa, people scatter their poppies over the tomb of the unknown soldier.
This
is the first year I had ever heard of a white poppy movement. It
appears that it has existed for a long time, but perhaps it is just new
to Canada this year. Peace movements are all fine and well, however
there should be no crossover or association with Remembrance Day - this
day is not about politics; stop trying to make it that way. Wearing a
red poppy in no way means you support war. You are remembering veterans
and the sacrifices they made, and continue to make on a daily basis.
You are supporting the Royal Canadian Legion and the work it does for
those veterans. Membership may be on the decline but there are still so
many who need the Legion, and I daresay it does more than you think it
does. It is their only major fundraiser and they need every penny.
Wearing a white poppy on Remembrance Day would seem to be a slap in the
face of all of these fine, brave men and women. If you want to make a
political statement, there are 364 other days of the year to do it.
National Archives - Veteran's Week
National Archives - Oral Histories of the First World War
Comments
I can definitely hear the cannons - I'm close enough to be able to see fireworks when they're on the Hill, plus the blasting of the river in the spring is only a street away from me - that last part, not so fun
two things I kick myself for losing over the years - (1) a tape recording I did for a school project with a friend's father who had been in the war; (2) a transcription I did for a Holocaust survivor of a speech he was giving about his ordeal. He was a colleague at a company I used to work for - he never talked about it and almost always wore long sleeves so you couldn't see the number tattooed on his arm. This speech would be the first time he had spoken publicly about the Holocaust, and his family would be there - his kids had never even heard him speak about it - I was new to the company and had no idea what I was typing about until I started listening to the tape - when I was done, all I could do was hand over the disk and hug him