Please wear a poppy and turn out for a Remembrance Day Ceremony next Monday.
The poppy is a bright red symbol of collective remembrance and appears on the lapel and collars of millions of Canadians.
It is a reminder, a visual pledge that we must not forget those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Those words are said so often we tend to forget what they mean and have to think back to understand that ordinary people—men, women, sons, daughters — risked or gave their lives to preserve democracy and the Canadian way of life.
Did they know what they were getting themselves into when they enlisted? Were they aware of what they might give up? Did they understand the significance of the conflicts they were involved in?
We don’t know for sure but we do know we owe them a debt of remembrance and that’s why we wear the poppy.
It’s not the wars we want to think about—wars are the cruelest method of solving conflicts or crises in our lives—instead we remember the young men and women who fought or the innocent who were caught up in these deadly conflicts.
The Legion Remembrance Day program closes with ‘At the going down of the sun, we will remember them’. Remembrance Day is a time to remember all veterans —those who died and those who returned with the scars of war, both visible and not seen, to allow us to express our viewpoints, raise our families safely and live in a free country.
Take the time, just an hour, out of your day next Monday to attend a remembrance service to support the Royal Canadian Legion members in their efforts.