Editorial: Remembrance day
Traditionally, on Thanksgiving, we communicate our gratefulness for our lives, for our country, its relative freedoms in our communities, and the overriding desire to have peace on earth good will toward all.
All this is due to the souls who came before us, the ones who chose to view our lives as significantly worth the risk to, and ultimate sacrifice of, some theirs for ours. If you are a young adult today, it is easy to get a world network mentality. To see us as all one big happy family. It’s a nice aspiration, but it is living in a virtual bubble promoted by the internet. To easy is it to think the good things found today have always been that way. We cannot view the past through the lens of today, the progressive steps need to be understood in the light and culture of those days. These things were bought by blood, and the love and truth brought clear by the chrysalis of the times!
Even though much has been taught in the schoolroom about the atrocities of history, under the barrage of revisionists grinding out claims on the net, it is easy to forget the love for you our warriors carried and still carry in their hearts. While it is a true saying, “History is written by the victors,” it is often said to discredit the history which was documented and shared. Since this statement was first coined by Hermann Goring, a disgruntled German military leader convicted of war crimes, many freedoms have been won and much has changed as a result of our veterans efforts.
In the past, information travelled slowly, as there was little aid to help it move. Before telephones, things were word of mouth or letter writing only. You remember the game called telephone, where one person whispers in the ear of another around a circle. The end result, when it’s come back to the first person, it’s usually a humorous breakdown of truth, often missing key pieces of the original idea, and some very imaginative fill in the blanks to round out the story. This is a simple but clear example of how things can get mixed up in sharing history over the years.
Letter writing took time to and fro and so there was much time itself, distorting the truth. After the advent of the actual telephone, information had less opportunity to be distorted this way, although it could not be totally eliminated. Even while words could travel much faster, revisionist biases still have an opportunity to weave themselves in there.
So what remains is the thing corrupting stories all through history, the resentment and bitterness of those who were defeated in their efforts to take control. Our country has a history of not being the aggressors but of aggressively defending life, like all our allies. Today, with the virtual instantaneous transmission of information, it is easy to fabricate stories to counter the established truth. Once sent out in to the ether-net these revisionists just watch the historical gossip mill do it’s work to devalue the sacrifice of those in our Canadian culture and our allies, which was made for you.
In theory, the less time the more reliable the story should be. But the shear volume of misinformation today makes it necessary to take a clear step back, talk directly to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, and evaluate the genuine efforts of those who are our own. This is not to push anyone to respond out of obligation, but to inform and in hopes to elicit a genuine response, to the history, of the world you live in here in Canada, to the amazing care taken to give you the life you share in.
If real time is given; you know, more than the length of a commercial, and honest thought is attempted; you know, more than the amount of time many take before they send out harsh words in a tweet, then a genuine young adult could be easily gripped with an understanding of what a privilege it is to be alive within an allied, free country like Canada.
This truth needs to be understood, sooo much has been won by Arm Force personnel, without them there would be nothing to protect. Much like Christ himself who died to protect the existence of life from the carrier of death in the spirit realm. They consider life worth it; they consider you worth it. So, a hearty round of thanksgiving for these tough, gracious human beings is more than worthwhile on Wednesday, November 11th, Remembrance Day. Say a thank-you to someone you know in the Armed Forces in your home, school, or virtually. Hey, even more than it used to be, a hand-written letter to one of these warriors of hope would bless their heart.
Happy Remembrance Day and Happy Seasoning.