Remembrance Day

Today is a day for reflection. A day to take stock of what we have but better yet, why we have it. Growing up in a free country is a privilege that is easy to take for granted. It is important to remind ourselves of the unspeakable horror and sacrifice that has gone into securing our birthright.

158 Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan. While they and their fellow troops were putting everything on the line a world away, life went on back home. The performance of the Toronto Stock Exchange got more news coverage and political attention than the military deaths announced in the same newscast that proclaimed new economic initiatives and sports scores.

Support our troops. This requires more than putting a slogan on a bumper. Remember the sacrifice, the permanent sacrifice, that is made in the name of Queen and country. No one comes home whole after experiencing the horror of war and our veterans need our support more than ever. Their combat in Afghanistan may have come to an end but their battle with their government at home continues to rage on. Let’s not let the government that has run up the biggest fiscal deficit in Canadian history, justify cutbacks  at the expense of our veterans.

Never take lightly the rights that so many have died to protect.

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the sounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell” - William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 - 1891)