This Remembrance Day was unlike many others. Sunny skies and above seasonal temperatures greeted veterans, students and others for the annual trek to the cenotaph.
Typically, unfavourable weather besets Nov. 11 activities. Most attendees appreciate getting out of the cold and sipping on hot coffee or hot chocolate at the Legion or community hall. Boy, we have turned into a bunch of softies, but thanks to veterans we have that luxury.
Our limited sacrifice of a few minutes each November, where the sound of a lone bugle pierces the air, taking those with a genuine heart from the depths of despair to a crescendo of hope, offers a chance to dream of days long since passed and those ahead.
Imagine for a moment, the perished veteran for whom the song never ends, or his comrades today who remember a time when it seemed the conflict was all but lost.
As North Americans continue to seriously tire of two current wars overseas, the purpose of forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have hit home like a ton of bricks.
Every indication in Fort Hood, Texas is that a sympathizer within the American Corps opened fire on his fellow soldiers, killing 13 and wounding 29 others.
The irony of the matter is that his job was, in part, to counsel soldiers returning and departing for military service in the aforementioned theatres of conflict. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan’s religious inclinations and “unfriendlies” with whom he was supposedly friendly, seemed to have factored into what happened.
Already, claims have been made that there were warning signs and indications of pending trouble. Few would have stepped into the breach before tragedy struck, preferring that safe zone too many of us today practice, failing to call people on nonsense or impropriety.
Now, of course, the infamous have come to the fore, making claims that a lot of this boils down to political correctness gone awry.
One such statement was that Hasan had suggested Muslims not be forced to battle overseas due to a religious conflict of sorts. A military court will end up deciding the man’s fate and determine what actually took place.
In the meantime, we hope time will be allowed to pass without reprisal for those who pray where many of us do not.
Certainly, the world is no safer than it was, nor is it any closer to a state of peace where men and women of all denominations and cultures can live without judgement or condemnation of each other.
Prophets that preach conspiracy and ill-will must continue to be railed against. If not, we run the risk of reducing the best of our hopes to the lowest of our fears, which clearly has failed mankind so many times before.
The push for goodness must continue.
