Least We Forget

Ok, so this is my second attempt at this post... I had written an eloquent diatribe about what I am about to say, so please bear in mind... this is a second post. To start off where I left... nothing much has been happening in the past week. It's all school school school! This week alone I don't have a day where a big assignment or presentation isn't due - I love paying for this. But on the bright side there are only 2 1/2 weeks of class left before finals. Now I know this may seem like a scary number, but for me finals means a break from all of this is coming, and I will this time be able to spend almost 3 STRAIGHT WEEKS IN BURLINGTON!!! This is an accomplishment all of its own for me, and I plan on enjoying every minute of it with the people I never get to see.

Point next, remembrance day is nearing. As a matter of fact it's this Friday. This 'holiday' I find sneaks up on me every year. Halloween ends, there's a week and a half of 'wtf?!' and then we're all standing silently for the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. Don't get me wrong I have no problem with it, as a matter of fact my main opinion is that many people these days have become very nonchalant about the whole thing. I see fewer young people with poppies and fewer veterans out to sell them. It seems as the generation that remembers passes on the uninhibited energy of youth fails to stop and ask, 'what's with that red flower you're selling?' It could be that as time passes by, the courageous acts of these men and women become overshadowed and drowned out by the horrid events of the present and all of our emotional energy has become drained.
People tend to not realize the added meaning of the poppies. We do not wear them just to remember those who have fallen so that others may rise. We wear them to show that we stand among the fallen. That we are one of the poppies in Flanders Field sprung from the courage, fortitude and beliefs of our ancestor’s sacrifices. To wear a poppy is not just to remember silently, it is to loudly crusade for the weak, oppressed and powerless. Otherwise what is the point of history, if nothing is learned? What good has come from these deaths if people still live impoverished of their most basic of human rights?
For me the poppy evokes mixed emotions. With each flash of red I see, a sense of unclean pride overcomes me. Why should I be proud of this? Despite not ever dying in vain, I feel that we as a country have let down the ghosts. And they still haunt us for that reason. Eventually I hope that the poppy will one day represent remembrance of the times we had a hand in overcoming the ills of the world. And that we need not overcome them anymore.
What so ever the reason, the meaning of Remembrance Day is fading from our memories. To halt this decay, we must take new steps worth remembering.

And there it is, my serious blog of the month. I hope it wasn’t too depressing, but hey I felt like it had to be done.
Till next time my friends,
Booth
p.s. to keep jog your memory check out the Remembrance Day Website, it has tons of links to check out, just incase you want a distraction.