You know by now that Rememberance Day and all it's activities are something i hold very near and dear to my heart. It was not only a way for me to have something to connect me to my dad and give him a reason to be proud of me and have his respect but it was / is a way for me to show tribute to my grandfather a man i never knew.
Many are going to say something negative about that especially my aunts... but in my eyes my grandfather is a hero. He did not see any action this is true but the fact that he did enlist and was willing to go and serve his country says something does it not? It's bravery like that shown by dozens of men and women why we are all here today living without the ordeal of dictatorship.
Every year the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #6 along with the camp aldershot army cadets do a cermonial laying of wreaths in steammill at the veterans plot. A legion member in full uniform and a cadet in uniform will march side by side lay the wreath on a fallen soilders resting place then stand and salut the deceased veteran before marching back to fall back in place in line with the others.
Each year the number of parcipants drops dramatically, to the point that it is not longer wreaths laid, now it is small discardable canadian flags... Apparently the cost was too high for the wreaths when some were being destroyed by the weather... This floored me.. how can you even begin to place a cost or budget in an acceptable price for the blood these men and women shed battling for our freedom without asking for anything in return.
A few years ago i wrote to one of the local papers and was published with my views regarding the dismaying effects the lack of respect our veterans were shown was having, i had hoped it would be an eye opener, that we would see and try to amend our ways but all i got was comments like "nicely written, i'll give you that". Thanks but no thanks i'm not looking or wanting praise here i want this tradition to continue. I want my child/ren to take as much pride in this as i do and i'm frightened that someday too soon they will be asking me what is a veteran why do we remember them, what did they do for us...?
what really has me boiling and seething is that we look to adults especially the legion members for guidence, to light the way and to see how even the handful that showed at last week's cermony acting like a bunch of anxious elementry school children was disturbing but even in elementry school you know how to form a two or three straight lines (fall into rank) the cadets outshined the legion members there.
All in all the entire cermony was cluttered and disapointing, some of the cadets had no uniforms so were permitted to still attend and take place with sneakers and tattered jeans etc, some of the young ladies did not even have their hair pulled back into the proper bun as required. The final insult was when it was time for one of the legion members along with a cadet to lay the flag and a poppy on a veterans grave neither saluted the fallen veteran before walking back to retake their places in line. Am i the only one who is disapointed and fustrated at this apauling behaviour? Am i out of line to be so annoyed? If you answered yes to either of these questions perhaps you should re-evaultate your freedom and at what cost you obtained it....
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