Remembrance Day, who owes who?

(Note to readers: I had changed the title to "who owes whom" after the original post appeared. I made the change to correct my grammatical mistake, but then it ruined the link for those who have kindly pointed to this post from elsewhere. So I have reverted to the original title, with the error, to restore the linking)

As published in the Miramichi Weekend, 10 November 2006

The Boer War in Southern Africa is so long ago that there is nobody left on Earth who remembered it. It now exists only in history books and documents. The stories of the 267 Canadians who died in that conflict, and the very reason for the fighting in the first place, is lost to practically all of us. Time marches on.

The very few remaining World War I veterans are well over 100. Most of the thousands of remaining World War II veterans are well into their 80s. Korean War veterans are long past retirement age, and Canada is quickly becoming a country that does not know the fear of how losing on the battlefield could mean the end of its way of life.

Yes, we have lost soldiers since Korea. We are losing them right now in Afghanistan, and every death of a Canadian soldier is a devastating blow. The engagements we are involved in now are no less important to the continuation of our way of life, but it has become harder to equate our victories and defeats with measurable changes in our society.

If we have a bad day in Afghanistan, the lights stay on and country keeps running. We see some news footage, and it renews the debate about why we are there, but the hockey games continue to be played, and the grocery shelves remain stocked. There is a disconnection between our dieing, and our living.

Ordinary Canadians of my generation are well aware of the sacrifices made by our sailors, airmen, soldiers, and their families, but we don’t really know what it must have been like to be home in Canada - hanging on every word of every newspaper article and radio broadcast, praying that our troops would prevail and we would win a decisive victory over the enemy.

During the two world wars we threw everything at the enemy. We threw practically the entire output of our economy, we threw considerable forbearance, and we threw our young men and women into battle with the full knowledge that many of them would not return.

The sacrifices made by our soldiers on the battlefield were matched by the sacrifices made by Canadians at home. Through lifestyle changes, rationing, blackout drills, munitions production, and human loss, every Canadian was fighting totalitarianism. That is not the case with our current military action. We are not all sacrificing and fighting to the same degree.

But that does not diminish the importance of our mission in Asia. The Taliban want us all dead and our civilization destroyed. If they are allowed to acquire power and weapons and the ability to take the fight to our shores, they will.

Tomorrow, we are adding new names to the rolls – killed in action since last year. It is vital that we remember their sacrifice, and that we remember it in everything we do.

Every Remembrance Day, I reflect most intently on those who never came home – those tens of thousands of Canadians who died never knowing if we won the war or not. Many of them undoubtedly died thinking that all was lost, and their last thoughts were certainly of their loved ones back home and the bleak future they might be facing.

We are lucky that it has now been over 60 years since we engaged an enemy on the battlefield that had the power to enslave us and our children for all time. But those six decades of relative security have made many of us complacent, and have allowed many of us to forget how very important the gift given by our soldiers is.

The motto of Remembrance Day, “Lest we forget,” is proving to be more important each year. It’s more important because we get older and less able to pass on our memories to those who are following us.

Despite good attendance at Remembrance Day ceremonies, we are reaching the stage where we, as a society, are forgetting the reality of war and how important winning those wars was. Despite the efforts of schools and churches and other institutions, we are losing our ability to transmit the seriousness of remembrance down to our youngest generation.

Remembrance Day is now, for some, just another holiday. And, when Remembrance Day falls on a weekend as it does this year, it is even harder to convince the public that it is not jut another day off.

This year, many of us will have next Monday off. Why? What does Monday have to do with anything? The true day for remembrance is November 11, and that happens to fall tomorrow. Everything should stop tomorrow at 11 a.m., and then life should resume when our remembrance and reflection is done.

I think if we are to truly honour Remembrance Day we should give it the complete respect it deserves – whenever it falls – and not treat it as a public holiday where government and public sectors get a “free” day off on those occasions where November 11 happens to be on a weekend.

In doing so, have we not inadvertently cast Remembrance Day as a day off that is owed to us, instead of a day that we owe to the fallen?

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