War in Ukraine. War in Gaza. Other wars and skirmishes around the world.
Here at home, peace. Peace and freedom. Peace, freedom and democracy.
Yes, home still has messy arguments, division, even sometimes hate. But there's still peace and order.
We as Canadians have so many freedoms. Freedom to protest. Freedom to stand or not to stand for the national anthem. Freedom to pursue your ambitions. Freedom to state your opinions. Freedom to disagree. Freedom to love whom you choose. Freedom and equality regardless of race, creed or gender. Tolerance of difference. Respect for rights.
Elsewhere, women are denied education. Gays are jailed or stoned. There is racial hatred, genocides and ethnic cleansings. Societies where the future is determined by birth, not character. Strongmen leaders, hereditary or by coup, sometimes even elected. Theocracies. Dictatorial government of a servile people. Misogyny. Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale. Servility and subjugation.
No one should celebrate war. No one should initiate it. There should always be a way to talk until some compromise, unsatisfactory to both sides perhaps, but sustainable, can be reached. Part of Remembrance Day is to consider the horrors of war, the better to seek to avoid it. Perhaps the most important part.
But when freedom and democracy are threatened and attacked, as has happened in the past and is happening now in other parts of the world, there is a choice to be made. We can choose a servile life or risk our life for a free future for ourselves and the next generation.
The men and women of Canada and her allies chose, on two occasions in the last century, and on others as well, to come together for freedom and democracy. They risked their lives and many lost theirs or endured life-changing physical or mental damage.
These were not people of a single mind on the issues that faced their country in peacetime. They were, however, people who believed in defending the right to disagree. In defending democracy: where we the people are the government.
Where citizens are adults who manage the affairs of state and choose those to judge the best courses of action by voting—not subjugated and powerless adherents to a monolithic ideology.
Had they not done so, we would live in a very different world. Perhaps we would not know better, not know what we are missing. But the thirst of the subjugated for freedom seems unquenchable whenever freedom is repressed. And we do know better.
Thanks to them.
The Canadian physician-poet of Remembrance Day, John McCrae calls us not only not to forget them. He asks that we be forever vigilant in standing up for the freedom and democracy without which long-lasting peace is impossible.
Take some time this Remembrance Day to attend a ceremony if you can. Give some thought to those who paid the ultimate price for our peace and freedom.
