A Poppy is to Remember
Well, finally got the okay from Vancouver to proceed with the current rewrite. It’s been a long arduous process to get this far. Now it’s up to me to bash out a draft based on the outline and copious notes. Some scenes will be easier than others to write, such as it is.
My other spec should have been done by now but then life is what happens when you’re making other plans. And these days, it’s all a bit too, “Leaf on the wind,” for my liking. It’s as if nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions any more. so they stall and stall until they can stall no longer before making a move. I’d rather they study up before making that move. It might make everybody’s life easier.
Like the old saying goes, “Anything can get you killed, including staying still.”
Today is Rememberance Day here in Canada. In every other province it’s a provincial holiday. Not so here in Ontario and I’m not sure why. There’s a lot of former Ontarians lying in foriegn soil. My Grandfather is buried in Holland. He was a tailgunner in 214 Squadron. One of the amalgamated Commonweath Squadrons formed before Canada started putting entire squadrons of her own into the fray. He lies in a pretty little cemetary just outside of Bergen. His plane was shot down by an Me110 night fighter as they were returning from their raid. Only two bodies were recovered from the crash. My grandfather’s and the Pilot. He buried in another cemetary 76 kilometers further up the coast. The rest of the crew were lost to the sea.
Right now, there’s a petition in our country to give the last WW1 soldier to die, a state funeral. Most of the young people asked don’t think this is a good idea. They feel it does nothing to honor the others who fell in the, “War to end all Wars,” but then what the fuck do they know? I study history, I’ve read the first person accounts of Ypres, Vimy Ridge, The Somme. I’ve looked over maps of the terrain and studied old photographs ad infinitum. Do you think for a minute I can get my head around the casualty rates. Or what it takes to hurl yourself up out of a trench en mass to run into machine gun fire? Artillery barages that last days?
During the battle of the Somme, there were 100,000 casualties in the first half hour. There have been just under 2500 deaths in Iraq over a two year period. No less senseless a loss but the shear breadth of it takes your breath away. One of their strategies was to form street brigades. Brigades of men all from the same neighborhood. After the Somme there were entire towns, with no men returning.
You made it through the slaughter of any war, you deserve a state funeral and free beer for life, it’s the least we can do.
Lest we Forget.
Is not just a catch phrase to remember the sacrifice of our men and women at arms, it’s a cry to the living to remember why this happened in the first place, what was gained, what was lost and for God’s sake if you can, avoid, doing it again at any cost.
The first world war happened because a small thing became a big thing. There was no clear cut goal, which is why it bogged down into a war of attrition. The second world war happened because of the treaty of Versaille and because a drowning man really will clutch at anything to save himself, including mass genocide (I’ll leave out Japan as that’s whole other issue). And now we’re living with the last and final fall out from the cold war.
It’s what happens when you hand out weapons and doctrine like pez. They don’t call guns, “The Devil’s right hand,” for nothing.
So if you can, sit down with a vetran (of any conflict or peace keeping action). Have a chat about whatever they want to talk about.
Thank them for their service.
Respect them for their sacrifice.
Because no matter where they served, part of them will always be there, forever. Regardless of what our Govt. chooses to honor.