I grew up in a military family. There was never any question or doubt about the impact of war on the lives of my father, his brothers or their father (my grandfather). They all served during one of two significant global wars and my father continued to serve in the air force after WW2. That was my reality and this served to shape my contextual view of the annual event we call Remembrance Day.
Rain or shine I grew up knowing that there was an absolute obligation to attend a public Remembrance ceremony and solemnly observe silence in memory of those who gave their lives for our country. Over the years the ceremonies took on different tones based upon the global or local sentiment. At some point in the 1980’s attendance waned and those in attendance lamented the loss of appreciation of the acts taken by those for whom we were there to commemorate. It also seemed, at the time like the world was not interested in stopping to remember but the crass commercialization of so much of our lives seemed to be bulldozing Remembrance Day into oblivion. However world events altered that sentiment and focus returned to the events we stop to consider on November 11. It is a different generation and a different sentiment now yet I think we need to help everyone appreciate and understand the larger view of Remembrance Day.
I always take time from my classes (the last one before November 11) to talk to my students about the reasons for Remembrance Day. I try to help them to see far back into a history many can barely imagine. I want them to try and appreciate the world of my grandparents and what WW1 was and what it meant to the many Canadians who blithely went off to a hell none could have ever imagined and what it did to those who remained behind. I want my students to know how, on July 1, 1916 nearly 58,000 men became casualties on a single day in a senseless battle, how the entire male community of Walhachin BC went off to war and none returned causing the community to fade away as a result of this tragic loss, and how scores and scores of men returned from this war so scarred and damaged that for so many communities, an entire generation was lost and lives were forever changed. I want my students to have a better appreciation of what took place between 1939 and 1945 and what impact this war also had on the people directly involved as well as those at home in Canada. How do you console a mother who receives a letter from her son dated after the war is over saying “I survived and I will see you soon Mom” only to find out a week later that her son’s tank ran over a mine and all in the tank were lost. How do you reintegrate an airman back into life after the war when his job was to take photos of the other planes on his various missions when over half of the photos contain images of his friends being blown up or of airplanes spiralling down out of control knowing none of your friends can escape because of the ensuing fire. How does anyone reconcile this and how do these events shape our world?
My students need to reflect and understand what went into making their worlds today and how their communities have become what they are today, and as a result of this reflection to then take this one November day, or an hour of this day, or even just 2 minutes to try and think about their place in relation to a much larger world and the sacrifices that many have made before them. My students need to know that this ancient history sits at their doorstep as a constant reminder of who and what they are today and what shapes their world. All of this is not just fluff in a textbook or Wikipedia to be dismissed or ignored because it does not fit neatly into their 21st century, networked, social world. Canadians still join up and go to distant lands and get killed or get maimed and then struggle to come back to this fairy tale-like world and struggle to reintegrate into today’s society in the same way my grandmother could never understand my grandfather and the thing he called “shell shock”. Grandpa was never right after his time spent in a damp and poisoned trench in 1916.
The greatest tragedy today however is that although we have learned to talk a good line with respect to our current military and we know how to put on a good show when the press is watching; we are treating our soldiers today as disposable characters that are never talked about after we have used their services and destroyed their world and the worlds of their families. We protest pipelines and make a huge show of stupid government decisions on prisons or health care but little is really known or talked about with respect to too many damaged service men and women who return from some far-away place doing a job no one at home really wants to talk about.
John McCrae got it right in his poem “In Flanders Fields”. However what we need to do is re-read this poem and hear it with a fresh understanding of our responsibilities. He states,
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
I can’t stop the Taliban from fomenting terrible events affecting people elsewhere in the world and my influence with the United Nations is somewhat miniscule. But what I can do is to speak up in my country about the most disgusting treatment afforded Canadian military veterans such as Maj. Mark Douglas Campbell, 47, a 32-year veteran of the Canadian Forces who served in Cyprus, Bosnia and Afghanistan and after being severely wounded in Afghanistan in 2008 was given a paltry financial sum for his efforts and impending life challenges and then shipped off home to fend for himself. Maj. Campbell’s story is just one of many today regarding the men and women who return home damaged from their time spent engaged in wars Canada commits its troops to.
We have broken faith and sadly it appears that “the foe is us”. The enemy is not the Taliban bomb builder (this is another conversation), the enemy is a government who prances around the globe throwing its soldiers into whatever fray happens to serve whatever public policy is the current flavor of the month then ignores and attempts to hide the after effects of the lives of those who willingly stepped forward to participate.
McCrae talked about the pain of breaking faith with those who died. Let us move the meaning of these words slightly further and include the wounded, the shell shocked, the men and women whose lives have been permanently altered as a result of their willingness to step up for this country. How dare we break faith? Remembrance Day is and should be a powerful time for all of us to think about the sacrifices of all who stepped up to do what our country asked of them however November 11 cannot be a solitary day just remembering events from dusty history books. It must be a call to challenge our society to change what is clearly wrong. We must never forget my grandfather and my father and his friends. We must never forget all who laboured to keep and to shape my country into what it is BUT we must be vigilant, we must “take up the quarrel with our foe” otherwise all of this is in vain. Somehow Remembrance Day must help to become a catalyst for change. Bad guys will always surface somewhere in the world and Canada will always find a way to attempt to reach out and help our global neighbours but when all is said and done, how dare we callously dispose of this precious asset, our veterans, those who freely and willingly stepped up to help? Please speak up and let us make the care of returning veterans a priority we never forget. If not, “We (the dead) shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.”
Amen.