What do we remember? What do we forget?
The sacrifices of men and women during times of conflict cannot be forgotten. They fought — and continue to fight — to preserve our freedoms.
As the years go by and the memories of past wars fade, it can be possible to forget. Veterans of World War II are leaving us. Most have already gone. More than eight decades ago those men and women left their homes as teens and young adults to battle axis forces the world believed would remove basic freedoms that had already been secured by the blood, tears and sweat of countless fighters before them.
They fought to preserve those freedoms then... and we continue the fight today.
For those who read that last sentence and thought of truck rallies, convoys and protests against the Canadian government... give your head a shake. Our freedoms aren't being taken away — and fighting for 'new' freedoms is the cry of warlords, not patriots.
Recent homeland events still being re-hashed by large-scale inquiries are a slap in the face to active duty military members who continue to keep our freedoms protected today. It's not bull-horn-blaring children who think someone is trying to take away their toys who are the guardians of our freedoms, and it's sad that they continue trying to share the spotlight with the real freedom violations happening around the world.
The irony — lost on many — is that the freedoms to express opinions and to peacefully protest, are freedoms that many around the world are dying to achieve.
On home soil and thousands of kilometres from home, men and women in military services fully understand those sacrifices, and the sacrifices of those who came before them. They continue to fight, build, educate and help those who will follow — because the sad reality is that conflicts will continue. And even in those rare months, days or minutes when the globe is at peace, we have to be ready, we can't forget.
Sadly, conflict is in our nature. It is hard to forget the horrors of war when battle lines — real or imaginary— are drawn every day.
In Ukraine today, streets are war-zones, modern shopping centres are battlegrounds and ordinary citizens are defending their freedoms and their lives. On the other side, a war machine that has never forgotten the taste of battle continues to march out its jack-boot role, convinced it is on the side of righteousness. In other parts of the world, markets are bomb targets, bus stations become missile craters and centuries-long conflicts continue daily.
Remembering isn't difficult when you can't forget. And whether it's a tattered, yellow and blue flag waving from the smoking rubble of what was once a hospital, or a man in Ottawa defending a blockade to stop his government from giving him medicine by pointing to bouncy castles, we can't forget when it continues to be played out in front of us. Even though we'd like to.
