North of the 49th | Amway

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Nov. 11th was just another day? Another seemingly carbon-copied day of pre-winter greyness notable only for what happens in the present, as opposed to a lamentation of what was lost in the past.

Unfortunately, Nov. 11th is not just another day. It's the time when we reflect upon those we've lost to one of man's greatest flaws — the ability to wage war upon one another.

Whatever your views on war are, today's a time to put politicking aside and remember those who came before us. To remember those who served, both abroad and on home soil supporting their efforts, in the various armed conflicts from the past couple of centuries: The Boer War, WWI, WWI, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And let's not forget those who have worn the blue hats in peacekeeping and stabilization missions, including — but not limited to — Cyprus, Sierra Leone, Darfur, and Haiti.

Sadly, our ties to those early wars are disappearing. In Canada, we have no surviving WWI veterans; the UK has two and the US has one. Our number of WWII veterans is also succumbing to the passage of time. Remembrance Day events are attended by fewer and fewer people. Poppies still dot the lapels of Canadians, but how many people truly understand their significance or are they wearing them simply out of ceremony? I hope the former is the case.

My ties to the wars are thin. Both my grandfathers served, but one died when I was five, while the other died in my early teens, but was never a part of my life. My wife's grandfather passed only a few years ago and was a member of the RCAF, but due to health issues was not able to serve overseas. That's it. I'm fortunate that, in large part, my family's been untouched by the ravages of war.

I used to worry that the lessons learned in these wars would be lost upon our children. Worse, are they being desensitized to the realities of war through movies and video games? I'm a small-scale gamer myself, so I'm not one to believe that video games (like rock music before it) is the root of all evil. However, as realistic as these games are nowadays, the fact of the matter is that there are no extra lives in real war. You can't reboot the game, or rewind the DVD, and start again. Compound that with modern military campaigns that include weapons that are controlled much like video games — such as armed drones that allow soldiers to bomb from afar while controlling it remotely from the relative safety of a bunker — and it's hard to imagine that the realities of trench warfare can continue to resonate with the next generations.

I used to worry about those lessons. Now I'm worried that the opposite is coming true. More and more, today's families are being fractured due to the loss of loved ones. Since 2002, 152 Canadians have returned home from Afghanistan not to a hero's welcome, but rather a mournful wake along the Highway of Heroes. Sergeant Marc Léger, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, and Privates Richard Green and Nathan Smith were the first Canadian casualties in Afghanistan. And on Aug. 30th of this year, Corporal Brian Pinksen died in Germany after being wounded just outside of Kandahar.

Unfortunately, this scenario is not unique to Canadians. Our friends in the U.S. have lost 1,273 men and women in this conflict alone; the UK has lost 341… In total 27 coalition countries have suffered losses. And let's not forget those families in Afghanistan who too have suffered losses. Despite our best efforts, war is indiscriminate in deciding who dies. It would be great to think that it's only the bad guys who lose — but there are some innocent lives lost in any conflict, not to mention the tremendous damage to the country's infrastructure and future.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we didn't need a Highway of Heroes; if these fine men and women were remembered not by the masses for losing their lives in conflict with one another, but instead only remembered by their families for years of shared experiences and memories not cut short in a hail of bullets or mortar fire?

Alas, we live in a world where that stretch of the 401 exists. We live in a world where cenotaphs dot the landscape from coast to coast. And we live in a world where children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren only know their mothers, fathers, and grandparents framed by yellow, curling edges of a photograph.

It's our responsibility to ensure that those memories aren't lost. There are a number of sites dedicated to preserving our soldiers' stories in their own words. Share them with your children. There are some wonderful programs out there that allow you to write to military personnel in the field. Let them know you care.

You don't have to support a war, or even the concept of war, to support our troops. And there's no better time to start than today, Remembrance Day. Take a moment to reflect upon those you've lost in war. Take a moment to recognize the efforts of those who have served — and continue to serve — our nation. If you see a veteran, say thank you to them. And if you know someone who has lost a loved one in a recent conflict, reach out to them and let them know you're there. If you can get to a cenotaph or a ceremony today, please do so. If not, take a moment at 11 a.m.* to honour these men and women.

*I want to thank Amway Canada's management and human resources staff for affording us the opportunity to have a moment of reflection. At 11 a.m., we cut out the in-house Musak, and an announcement is made to remind employees. It's a small gesture, but it truly means a lot. Thank you again.

What does Remembrance Day mean to you? And for our U.S. friends, Veterans Day? Our readers overseas? How do you recognize the event? And if you do, how do you pass along the significance and lessons to your children? Please feel free to use the comments below.

With that said, I'll leave you with Lieutenant Colonel John McRae's immortal words — and the motivation behind the actions of millions of poppy-wearing Canadians over the years — from the poem, In Flanders Fields. Again, in an ideal world, LCol McRae never would have had the experience that led to the inspiration for these words. But we don't live in an ideal world. Until we do, we need to continue to hold fast to these memories, pass them along to future generations, and try to learn from these lessons.

After all, they say that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. And I honestly believe that none of us wants to repeat the loss of almost 80,000,000* lives to war again.

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."

* (Please note that this number is an estimate, based upon reviewing various source documents, and is not intended to be a definitive count of the actual number of war dead from all sides of the conflict. The number was reached by adding up estimates of lives lost, using neither the most conservative, nor the most expansive estimates: 75,000 [Boer War], 55,000,000 [WWII], 15,000,000 [WWI], 3,000,000 [Korean War], 4,200,000 [Second Indochina War], Iraq [1,690,000], and Afghanistan [50,000])