Never again! War.
Today was Remembrance day and I did not attend any public ceremonies although I could have attended national celebrations. I was being shy and withdrawn and generally affected by a long life with schizophrenia that cuts into my social abilities. But I did read some materials from veterans organizations and thought a little about a friend serving in Afghanistan and will think more about him tomorrow, as I have the day off work tomorrow as a holiday. I will also remember a great uncle who died fighting in Italy in the war. And I will remember the solider in my family who was alive, when I was young my grandfather the Air Force Commander. I also have an uncle whose brother was a colonel in the Gulf war. All the soldiers I know are Canadians. Wait that is not quite true some of the Canadians in my family served in foreign armies. I have a cousin who I saw two weeks ago is a former Soviet solider who now lives in Canada. My other grandfather was an underground solider who actually did time in a Nazis jail. At least that is what I am told. Certainly my family too lived in a refugee camp in Europe because of war. Also in the late 1970's we helped settle some Vietnamese refugees in Canada. I hope to continue to be a pacifist and I am against the present NATO wars but might be found supporting UN forces. But war generally for me in North America is a distant and not really real phenomena.
Please visit our Veterans Affairs web site in Canada. http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/.
Posted by petert at November 11, 2007 11:56 PM
