11 November

[August1991]

MapleSyrup and Caesar, I am sorry. Playfullfellow, I am sorry too.

Your foolishness is one thing but this issue is too serious to me.

MapleSyrup and Caesar, I have been to France (and Italy) to see what Brian Mulroney claimed as our Canadian right to be at the G-7 table.

MapleSyrup, Caesar and Playfull, have you done what I did? Have you seen?

----

I lived in Russia for several years and I wondered what one Canadian guy could do. In the grand scheme of things, nothing. Russia defeated the Nazis.

My mother's first husband died in the war. A navigator. Over France. From small town Ontario. A wasted life, so I thought.

Curious, I figured this out, years later, and I went to see. In the the French village.

Imagine. There is a plaque. In France. For a Canadian. From Sundridge, Ontario.

The French women who drove me to the plaque wanted to know the story of my mother and the navigator.

He never walked in France. But I did.

Years later, I realized that his life was not wasted. I have smoked and stubbed out too many cigarettes in Commonwealth War Cemeteries from Sri Lanka to Italy.

The defence of liberty is not obvious or simple. Russians may claim that they defeated Fascism, and they may be right, but freedom is won by individual effort.

We live our lives as individuals. We wish the best for our children.

I see a fundamental difference between the death of my mother's first husband and a suicide bomber in the Middle East.

He died for my Freedom.

[maplesyrup]

My Dad was in World War 11.

The war affected him, how much I am not really sure, as I did not know him before the war. But he was never a healthy man after the war.

I will go to Remeberance Day Services tomorrow out of my love and respect for my Dad.

But I will not be going to celebrate the war mongers or the people who believe in war.

My Dad did not believe in war either, nor did he hate the Germans - he gave me a book once called the Fifth Wheel. It was supposedly a fiction about a US family who had a manufacturing plant who have five kids. The fifth kid watched as the family plant switched from whatever they were manufacturing, to manufacturing munitions or weapons. He saw the war coming long before the other members in his family did, and was worried about his own children having to go into a manfactured war.

[caesar]

Although I was only 3 1/2 when the war ended; I remmeber much about the war. My father was not allowed to join the army overseas as he had only one eye but he trained young soldiers in first aid and the morse code. He sent off many brave young men who never came back. e was very angry and upset with god for allowing all these good young men to die; he never set foot in a church again. Radio broadcasts can be even more frightening than tv as your imagination can run wild. My older brother was terrified whenever a plane flew overhead and would hide under a tree. I remember seeing one dropping flyers ( leaflets) out of a plane one time; we thought they were bombs. The Japanese had kamikazee pilots in WW!! which are not much different that the Palestinian terrorist bombers. I realize that the Japanses targetted military targets. The Palestinian terrorists just blow up anyone civillians included but then so does Israel only on a much larger scale with more sophisticated weapons. The Palestinians are fighting for their right to be free to live and rule themselves the same as our young men were.

[kimmy]

I was seven years old when the war ended... the Persian Gulf War... and I guess I should be thankful that I can't even imagine what it would be like to go off to war. I have only the deepest respect for those that have done so.

I watched some of the coverage of the Ottawa ceremonies on CBC Newsworld this morning. Towards the end of the show, one of the reporters interviewed a 16 year old girl who was collecting signatures for her petition in favor of Canadian intervention in Rwanda. She seemed so pumped up about it that it made me want to smack her. "We're Canadians, we should go fight for peoples' rights because that's what we believe in (etc.)" First off, chick, I know you're not in the military, because you're 16. Second, I know that even if you were in the military, you wouldn't be on the front line because you're female. So you're collecting signatures to risk other peoples lives in a situation you'll never face. That's mighty big of you, miss. Personally, I would be quite ashamed to be campaigning for others to be making such a sacrifice that I wasn't prepared to give myself.

I am glad that we live in a country that has only voluntary military service. And I hope that our leadership will always be very careful and wise in deciding when to put Canadian lives at risk.

-kimmy

[caesar]

"We're Canadians, we should go fight for peoples' rights because that's what we believe in (etc.)" First off, chick, I know you're not in the military, because you're 16. Second, I know that even if you were in the military, you wouldn't be on the front line because you're female.

Guess you have not watch much of the news; women ARE now fighting and dying in the frontline alongside the men. Rwanda WAS a just cause; where people are being killed needlessly (genocide).

The Persian Gulf War; was just an invasion and cannot be compared in any way to WW! or WW!!.

Of course, Canada should join in justified military intervention where there is an needless slaughter of people; unfortunately the latest Iraq invasion the needless slaughter was being done by our "friends"