God bless you and your families. You are the best of us.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Remember
God bless you and your families. You are the best of us.
God bless you and your families. You are the best of us.
God bless you and your families. You are the best of us.
"You are the best of us."
ReplyDeleteI think I have the line I'm going to use today LT, thanks.
My cousin's Boyfriend is in Afghanistan right now on his second tour there, just getting ready to come home actually. He's part of the mission that has been packing up the Canadian equipment from the combat mission in Kandahar.
They really are the best of us, and the reason we can sit here and muse about line combinations and trade possibilities from a hockey team.
They really are the best of us.
Well said LT. Lots of great stories about Canadians in the service if you just look. I have some books about WW1 and WW2, very fascinating. Do yourself a favour and read up on it today.
ReplyDeleteThanks to my Dad today. He served on a Mine Sweeper in the North Atlantic. I don't know how the hell they did it!
ReplyDeleteWell said LT. Thank-you my brothers in arms. I remember ... Always!
ReplyDeleteThanks to all who have served.
ReplyDeleteON another note, Barker flown back to Edmonton due to an ankle injury. Good luck to us!
A little reading about a true Canadian war hero
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Prince
I won't post the GDT until 11:30, but aside from Barker hurt they are stapling Eager's ass to the pressbox too.
ReplyDeleteWW I was a stupid senseless war. WW I and it's stupid foolish consequences invented by stupid foolish nations begat WW II.
ReplyDeleteThe "good guys wearing the white hats" have invaded two countries this past decade on false pretenses, destroying the lives of many more loyal men and women, and countless innocent civilians. We are still fighting in those two countries.
Our esteemed leaders have placed us in an indefinite War against Terror, a war with an impossible goal to appease the military industrial complex that gets them elected.
Our nations have created a day of honour for those that fight their stupid foolish battles because they know it will help them find yet more young loyal men and women to fight future wars.
And of course the consequences are farther reaching than that.... Income tax and a fiat money system based on enslaving populations to debt in perpetuity are the legacy of these wars.
People thought they were fighting for freedom. Instead they were fighting to place themselves into hidden slavery, the ultimate irony that most still don't see today.
Yeah, I remember, I remember well and it makes me sick to my stomach. My heart goes out to all the families destroyed by the senseless violence of war. My tears are for the present and future generations that will continue to be fooled by the solemn pomp and propaganda of this pernicious day and what it represents.
*sob*
@ spoiler
ReplyDeleteI was writing a lies phones to your post but decided LT's site isn't the place for political arguments. Let's just remember the fallen and cheer for the Oilers.
Really Spoiler??
ReplyDeleteWe are hidden slaves, eh? Thanks for the update. Maybe you should use the day to reflect on how you cannot boil a complex thing like a world war into a few verses from the NDP song sheet.
I'll use mine to thank those that fought to ensure my very real freedom
One hour until 11:11:11 at 11:11:11.
ReplyDeleteDucey
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what songs would be in the NDP songbook, but your blatant and hamhanded attempt at guilt by association at least gave me a few laughs.
http://www.matthewgood.org/front-page/2011/11/10/remembrance.html
ReplyDeleteSpoiler - you are a great example of how a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
ReplyDeleteThere is wisdom in questioning how wars have happened and how they could have been avoided and there is a real need to question how and why the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq came about and the great costs they have imparted upon individuals in both those countries and upon the men who have gone to fight in them and the families of soldiers called to fight in those conflicts.
However, as always you oversimplify things. Today is about remembering soldiers who have suffered fighting for the institutions that have allowed us to live in a world that is as good as the one we have today.
It is cowardly for you to sit safely in your 'job in the financial sector' and belittle the fact that people have fought and died for the freedoms that you enjoy today, and regardless of the fact that you would like even more freedom (freedom from contributing to society via taxes, etc), you should be thankful that people have risked and given their lives for that fight.
We all know that the logical thing for individuals to do would be to act selfishly and protect themselves by avoiding conflict when it happens. We can also recognize that nationalism can be used to 'fool' people into fighting in wars that are not in their best interest (or in the best interest of society). We can also be cognizant of the influence of the 'military complex' on the most recent wars that the USA and Canada have been involved in and it is important that we discuss and debate those issues.
However, not everyone who fights has been 'fooled', not every war or every factor that has encouraged individuals and countries to enter into war has been misguided. At times, important principles and institutions have been fought for. We benefit greatly because there have been people willing to put aside self interest, and to act collectively to fight for what they believe in.
You live in a world where self interest trumps all - or at least you would like to. I am glad that we don't. A world limited to individualism is a world of tyrants. I am glad that people sometimes act collectively to achieve more than what they could individually. I am indeed, thankful that people have contributed so much to building and defending the institutions that have given us the amazing society that we live in today - I am particularly thankful for those who have given their lives for the effort.
Thanks Matt N.
ReplyDeleteYou have any more?
I don't expect my view to be popular or accepted... But it is the way I feel on this day... Overwhelmed by the enormous tragedy of it all. If you feel like it, take a few moments to actually contemplate the ideas I have put forth, or go do some research, or just allow a wee space in your hearts for other possibilities. If not, that's fair too, carry on as you would. I don't expect to change the world here in this thread, lol.
ReplyDeleteAlso - feel free to reply Spoiler, but I won't. I am done.
ReplyDeleteBookie
ReplyDeleteYou are the very definition of little knowledge as you know very little about me and yet think you know enough to judge. It is that very hubris that leads to things like wars, so thanks for providing us all with a shining example of "little knowledge" and the false assumptions they lead to.
It's really too bad that a thread that shouldn't be political or ideological has been ruined in < 20 comments.
ReplyDeleteI'm not here to debate sides of an argument, I'm not here to decide who or what is right or wrong.
regardless of what someone thinks, people have died fighting for what they believe is right, and to help give us what we have today. That is what today is about, nothing more. And that is what we should be talking about.
Take the political ideals and put them somewhere else today. If even the politicians can, so can everyone else.
It is cowardly for you to sit safely in your 'job in the financial sector' and belittle the fact that people have fought and died for the freedoms that you enjoy today, and regardless of the fact that you would like even more freedom (freedom from contributing to society via taxes, etc), you should be thankful that people have risked and given their lives for that fight.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this essentially Jack Nicholson's speech in 'A Few Good Men?'
Personally, I liked him better as the Joker.
"What this town needs is an enema!"
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
ReplyDeleteKnock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas!Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918
Everyone here is right about war, includig spoiler. There is nothing good or great about anything having to do with wars, including being a soldier. (Yoda: "Wars not make one great.")
But we should remember the fallen and try to show them the love they never knew and never will know. Many died in an attempt to make our lives better, rightly or wrongly, and we should love them for it and swear to them that we won't ever let it happen again. We owe them that.
So let's stop this discussion.
P.S. Here's a link to my favorite song about war, from Motorhead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqFoqtpUFY8
Kris, it's times like this that I wish you actually were my alternate account.
ReplyDeleteI wish I was Lemy from Motorhead, so, maybe we could be some kind of weird unholy trinity.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kris.
ReplyDeleteAll I ask is that we also remember the brave civilians who have also lost their lives and not just the soldiers, who are without a doubt brave men and women for what they do (however tragic), but no more brave than the poor non-combatants caught in the middle of it all.
Oh last thing. There's a haunting story about a Christmas party that happened between the Brits and the Germans in the trenches during WWI. Radio lab talks about it here (starting at th 15:00 min. mark.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.radiolab.org/2010/dec/14/one-good-deed-deserves-another/
The early part of the discussion is about the prisoner's dilemma (I teach this stuff). I'd listen to the whole program, but you should definitely at least listen to the stuff about WWI after the 15:00 mark.
Wunderbar
ReplyDeleteI contend that today is ALL about politics. JMHO.
It's all good spoiler. There are no holidays from thinking about the moral consequeces of our actions. But I think we could save this for another forum.
ReplyDeleteThere is a game tonight after all!
Spoiler, as somone who has known someone who gave his life in service, and someone who is in Afghanistan right now, I am truly offended and disgusted by that.
ReplyDeleteI cannot even begin to comprehend the level of disrespect that statement brings.
I'm done here.
Actually, since I forgot to put this in. I don't necessarily disagree with everything you say, Spoiler. I don't agree with all of it, but some of what you say does have some merit.
ReplyDeleteBut today is not about that. Leave those opinions at the door, for one day.
Now I'm done. See you all in the GDT.
Spoiler,
ReplyDeleteI think the reaction to your post has less to do with your take on Nov 11, and more with your decision to take our esteemed host's humble Remembrance post as your pulpit.
You may disagree with him, but with a little respect you could have kept that to yourself, or your own blog. It was just plain bad manners to shoot off your mouth in here today, that's all.
Thinking of my dad today. 1924-2007. Enlisted in RCAF at 18, and spent his 21st birthday crossing the German border.
ReplyDelete50 years later Dad and many others were recognized as heroes in a massive, moving tribute by the Dutch. Later in life he also developed a friendship with a man who had served in the German army in WWII. Lest we forget, they weren't all monsters, on either side.
"You are the best of us"
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this Lowetide. Definitely a day and subject worth remembering and discussing.
Thinking also of my family members who have served, and all servicemen and women past and present.
My great-grandfather served in WW1 and developed cancer shortly after war's end and died when my grandfather was just an infant.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather - father figure to me as my grandparents raised me - was a proud member of the Royal Canadian Legion and I was raised to be very respectful of all that was risked and eventually lost in the world wars.
As more and more of the combatants pass away and the numbers marching decrease we lose the oral history and the human reminders of everything that took place.
It's somewhat-but-unintentionally trite and nowhere near sufficient but I extend a very heartfelt and sad thank you to all that were lost or impacted.
I agree with a lot of what spOILer has said. Not sure that would have been the case when I was 22 or whatever.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as for the timing of his statement, I thought that some of the soldiers are supposed to have died for spOILer's freedom to say and think those things (although whether very many of them considered it in those terms, or whether they perceived it as the best option available to them (I don't see a lot of my peers on the list of dead in Iraq, for example) is another question entirely.)
Spoiler.
ReplyDeleteYou need to spend a few hours in solitude looking at photos of Nazi death camps and then tell all of us there was nothing for our soldiers, including my grandparents and both parents, worth fighting for.
You're a disgraceful human being.