Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day was this past week. As is typical for me, I phoned up a friend of mine, wished him a "Happy Remembrance Day" and asked if he was going to watch Flags of our Fathers once again. He came back with the quick reply of "you ungrateful bastard". I'm guessing he must have picked up the sarcasm in my voice again!

It's true, I can't say I'm a big Remembrance Day fan. It's interesting because every year Remembrance Day comes around and every year I treat it as the same as any other day. Then after it's over I think that maybe I should have gone to the service at Credit Union Centre, sit in a hot building with 5,000 other people and place bets on which kid standing in the line of cadets will be the first one to faint and fall over. But by the time the day rolls around again the next year I forget about those thoughts and once again do nothing.

The friend who called me the bad name previously is just the opposite. He always goes to the services, he wears his poppy with pride and he probably even does 2 minutes of silence instead of just the one, to show how thankful he is.

This year I think I figured out why Remembrance Day is not a big deal to me. The truth is I'm thankful for the Canadian soldiers that fought for us in the World Wars, I really am. If it weren't for them we'd have to drive down to the USA every Veterans Day to say thanks to them for saving us from those nasty Germans (ok, that was not nice.) But seriously, the reason it's not a big deal to me is that I don't know anyone that was personally in the war or fought in the war. I can't phone up my Grandpa and say "Thanks" every Nov 11 for what he did for our country. We all get together to say thanks, but I really don't have that connection that makes it personal...therefore it is not a big deal to me.

I think it is the same for anything else out there...like diseases. How many people really give two hoots about the Crohns and Colitus Foundation? Probably very few of you...except for those who know someone who suffers from it. When you have that personal connection it suddenly means a lot to you. I believe the CIBC Run for the Cure used the slogan "Who are you running for?" to get people out to their event. Almost everyone that runs in that event knows someone personally who has suffered from cancer, so the run is something special. I just don't have that with Remembrance Day.

So, to all the veterans out there that fought in the wars, thank you for what you did even though I don't know you...I still get to benefit from what you did. This poppy's for you!