For so many years, the large crowds at Remembrance Day services across the country and across this county have been one measure of the respect in which we hold veterans and the fallen from past wars.
We understand they gave their youth, often their health, in too many cases their lives, so that we can enjoy the freedoms we do today.
The freedom to assemble is often thought of as one of those liberties. But this year the respectful thing to do as a citizen was to stay away from the actual services and allow Legion members, remaining veterans and other essential participants the opportunity to memorialize the fallen, on all our behalf, at cenotaph services on Nov. 11, without the risks associated with large gatherings during a pandemic.
By the time this is published, services will have been held across the region and images from most will appear in next week’s issues of the Community News and Wellington Advertiser.
Some Legion branches arranged for live-streaming of Remembrance services that hopefully found an audience with those seeking a communal experience in these difficult times.
However we reflect, we each contribute to the collective effort to keep fresh the most pressing lessons of our history, the ones we strive, through whatever other challenges we face, not to allow ourselves to repeat.
Like its fallen victims, the lessons of war must not be forgotten.
