it is remembrance day. for the past week we have all been wearing our poppies, and today, i went into sebastian's classroom and talked to 2N about remembrance day, and the importance of remembering our glorious dead.
we talked about the corn poppy, war memorials, and the world wars. at one point, it got very interesting, as the japanese children in the class said, "and then we bombed hong kong and lived here! yay japan! yay japan!" and then a couple of the boys said, "yes, but then we beat you."
it was different giving a speech that didn't include enemies, or idiologies, because at age six, they don't understand those concepts, they understand goodies and baddies.
it was also difficult, when i was talking about how the war was tough for women and children because they didn't see their husbands and daddies for five years, a little girl put up her hand and said, "that is like me. my daddy died three years ago. it is very sad."
we talked about Flanders Fields, freedom and how brave people were to fight to give people they had never met, US! a wonderful life. i talked about my grandad. my gran. i heard about great grandparents who worked on farms (a great gran), a great grandfather who didn't die in the war.
is your freedom worth a minute of silence and respect to say thank you?
Reader interactions
4 Replies to “lest we forget”
Great post! Remember all veterans today! Those who gave their lives for us and those who are still fighting for us. Thank you for posting this!
I was commenting to a few people at work today how I was so dissapointed and discouraged by the lack of poppies being worn this year, let alone the lack of respect shows towards our vets, especially by our Government.
As stated by someone close to me. “Its funny how the Government can give themselves raises when they feel like it, yet there are no bullets flying around the Parliment”,, yet those who fought in areas riddled with bullets have to fight for what should be rightfully given to them””… what a sad yet true statement.
Most certainly it is. But it fustrates me that so many people did not honour it yesterday. In fact most people didn’t even know it was Rememberance Day. And when they were told, had no intention of showing any respect.
Perhaps I can cheer you up a tad. I live only a few blocks from a hospital that was originally a veterans hospital here in TO. Yesterday at 11:00 I was jolted out of my reverie to the sound of small planes overhead. Several loud small planes. I don’t know much about small planes – or big ones frankly – but I’m guessing these were fighter plans – dog fight type plans. They flew right overhead, in a formation of 4. As they flew over the hospital they started their vapour trails. It was perfect – they were so real, so strong and so perfectly in formation. They commanded just the type of respect that our veterans deserve. Thanks Sunnybrook!