Today is November 11 – Remembrance Day. Over the last few days PeaceQuest's readers have been responding to our question: What are you remembering on November 11 this year?
Here are the heartfelt answers we received. Thank you to everyone who participated.
(If you’d like to leave your own comment, the submission form is at the bottom of the replies. We will add your comments as soon as possible)
What are you remembering on November 11 this year?
As always, I remember family who survived both world wars, but especially those who never came home. As a retired union member, I also remember the workers who left their jobs and families, over the centuries, to fight wars put upon them by the political decisions of others. For these reasons, and more, I join others, particularly the local labour council, and lay a wreath at the local commemoration on November 11.
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My father joined the Air Force and survived WW2 serving with the Belgian and French resistance as well. His courage, sacrifice and survival skills still inspire. He warned me once: “Beware the seductive power of the gun.” If only.
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Millions of men have been conscripted to fight and die for their country, but no company has been nationalized to fight a war. They maximize their profits, and even put their brand names on weapons. When I had first learned about the draft, I had totally assumed that arms factories would be run by the branches they supplied, at zero profit. The billionaires win every war, by selling arms to both sides if possible.
To defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, England had to borrow money. To get it, they had to co-sign all the loans Napoleon had taken out. They were finally paid off around 1955.
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My remembrance is on a personal note. November 11, 2019 my wife went to hospital in an ambulance never to return home. She died from cancer complications. Every november 11 I am reminded of her journey to eternity and feel this great loss. As i mourn her loss i think and contemplate that there are not thousands but millions or may be a billion innocent souls that have perished in wars leaving their loved ones grieving. I think wars are evil and should be avoided at all costs. Those who profess wars should look hard at their loved ones. Would they like them to be corpses?
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This year I will not wear a red poppy. Instead, I will wear a white peace poppy for the reasons given on the card which accompanies the white poppy:
to commemorate all victims of war
to mourn the environmental devastation it causes
to reject war as a tool for social change
to call for dialog and peaceful conflict resolution
to show your commitment to building a better future
Because Remembering is Important, But it Isn't Enough.
To learn more visit www.peacepoppies.ca
Ernie Wiens
La Salle, MB.
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For every woman raped in every war.
Dr. Lisa S. Price
Gibsons, BC
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That massive preparations for war, stockpiling weapons by all western powers as well as others such as Russia and China and India, are a recipe for the ethnic cleansing and genocide we are seeing as the Israeli state takes collective revenge on a helpless population in Gaza. I cannot celebrate the November 11 ceremonies that seem to glorify war, with veterans wearing their uniforms and medals and cannons and guns firing. It is too much. The world needs to disarm before we are all Gazans.
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Israel will not rest until they've taken over all of Palestine.
They were meant to share that land.
The US and UN who imposed this on the occupants in 1947 are responsible for all the deaths. What a shame. What an awful world this is.
I hope God reigns hellfire down on all the evil, money-worshipping heathens.
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I remember how easy it is for power to brainwash the people into the necessity of war
The official statement for November 11:
"It marks the end of hostilities during the First World War and an opportunity to recall all those who have served in the nation's defence."
Four things:
1. The Treaty of Versailles created WW2 - thanks to a desire for vengeance, the Germans did not take part and the Treaty brutalized the German people and started the fury-go-round that is our world today.
2. Canada was not under attack. The war was fought by imperial powers for imperial treasure and all those who fought in the war were fighting unknowingly for that treasure–propaganda!
3. Who paid for the weapons of war, the outfitting of troops–We, the People!
4. Where, oh where is the Tomb of the Unknown Civilian? WW1 was a total war, defined as when civilian casualties outnumber military. From Census.gov - "9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians". As Frederick Vrley so eloquently showed us in his painting of a WW1 battlefield, "For What?"
Spare me the rhetoric about WW1. It was an Imperial Dog Fight and we, the people paid the price in blood and treasure.
I will remember the stupidity and the relentless cycle of greed of power and the death of We, the People, for whom there is no monument.
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This year I will be remembering all those currently in the throes of war, especially in Gaza and Ukraine. Those who fought in distant conflicts will not be foremost in my thoughts and sympathies.
Elizabeth O’Connor
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I will remember how all of Canada's participation in the wars of the British Empire were wars fought by the empire's poor and working class people, or colonials from Africa and India who were exploited and killed for an empire based on white supremacy and profound class divisions. This is true of the Boer War, World Wars I and II. I will remember that the soldiers who fought in the trenches of World War I would return to a Canada that would quickly forget them so much so that many in Winnipeg would see men of similar age who never fought in those trenches but had made themselves rich off the war. This would lead these veterans to help organize the Winnipeg General Strike and nonviolent actions to achieve rights for working class people who would then be struck down violently by the North West Mounted Police, special constables, and eventually the Canadian Army would be deployed to the streets of Winnipeg to crush a burgeoning labor movement. Many of those strike leaders including Ukrainians and Russians who worked together to improve the lot of working people would be arrested and/or deported. This is what I will be remembering about our so called peace loving and peacemaking nation now one of the most aggressive and violent countries on the planet that supports Israeli Apartheid and Occupation, supports and NATO war of aggression on Russia and provocatively has warships and warplanes accompanying a hostile American fleet off the coast of China. The myth of Canada as a peace keeping nation is just that about as real as unicorns!
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I had an uncle that stormed the beach at Normandy on D Day when he was still a teenager. Miraculously he survived the war.
When you ask what I am remembering it popped into my mind to be thinking about all the combatants and civilians who died in some war small or large in all the thousands of years our species has existed, right up until today. Going to war, because some people, powerful, wealthy, elite, managed to recruit enough citizens to fight for them to try and get more wealth, land and power, "The March of Folly".
I think that the Russian people, particularly the mothers, will stop the war in Ukraine. I hope that Israeli citizens and Israels' allies will stop the war in Palestine with a lasting peace. Maybe by November 11th it will be over. Then we will spread peace to all countries.
Rosemary
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All the innocent civilians massacred in wars including those killed by western states.
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I was a child in Britain during WWII: My father fought in WWI as a teenager and was allocated to the Home Guard in WWII. As well, my mother died in 1943, leaving my brother, age 10 and myself age 5, at home and my father miles away in the Home Guard. For sure he developed PTSD. It was a bit like living with a volcano. My experiences during the war, including a short stint in boarding school until my father found some care for me, have affected my entire life, especially my relationships. I want people to understand that it is not just war itself, not just the soldiers, but the impact on everyone that is full of negative effects. From wartime news stories, the dreaded knock on the door, food rationing, all those effects to the less identified nationally artificially produced hatred of 'the others,' the idea that some people are friends and some are enemies, the acceptance of divisions; there are good people and bad people, and that violence is right and necessary (the good guys will win) .... by perpetuating these deeply held beliefs, war damages generations not just individuals. As the song goes "when will we ever learn?"
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On November 11, I think about all the victims of war. I think specially about civilians who die during conflicts. This is why I wear a White Poppy.
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I believe in the message of the White Poppy {*to commemorate all victims of war * to mourn the environmental devastation it causes,*to reject war as a tool for social change, etc } The White Poppy was- introduced by the Women's Cooperative Guild in England in 1933. Yet every November I see an outbreak of red poppies; they appear on the clothing of members of Parliament (at least the ones we see), as well as most TV personalities. These uniform decorations appear regularly on the 1st of November, and suddenly die after the 11th.
Let us hope to see more White Poppies and less war.
Nêst Pritchard Toronto
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Never again became once again. Here we go again and Canada is an active participant in a genocide. What a shame! Lessons are not learnt. What will it take?
Mike Antoniades
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It makes me angry that a few men, excited at the heroics of all out war, and unwilling or incapable of an intellectual solution, could wantonly murder and destroy at will then freely walk among what’s left of us.
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I don't have time to remember. I'm working online and helping organize rallies for Gaza in Kingston, Ontario, while a fleeing and terrified population is bombed by weapons in part supplied by my own country, Canada. My focus is on the crisis now.
What am I feeling on November 11? I just saw a video that had clips of huge rallies for Palestine from around the world. I cried and am still crying with relief- our own citizens in Toronto had a monumental march included in that video.
My crying is also out of fear and pain for the people of Gaza, running for their lives with their children in tow; and for the Gaza patients: sick, injured and being bombed in their hospital beds by Israeli war planes.
I feel estrangement from and shame for my country, Canada, which-against all humane impulse- is supporting Israel against pushback from Canadians, a majority of whom call for a ceasefire.
Today is November 11. I don't have time to remember anything but to help advance a ceasefire in Gaza.
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I usually think of my paternal grandfather who I never met, who was gassed in December 1917 and died in 1930 of TB, in part attributable to the gas damage to his lungs. And his brother who lost an arm. But also: Remembrance Day is not a celebration of war. It is a commemoration of sacrifice and loss. To remember those who died, who were injured and who were damaged, and those who fought and returned alive. It is a call to end war, to put our guns down, to reach for peace.
Robin
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I will go for a quiet walk at the Beechwood military cemetery this afternoon after all the ceremony. The biggest part of my life, born in a military family, and then serving 33 years, and peace building in retirement since 2001. Perhaps all this should be an occasion for truly renewing our efforts for peace in the world, especially by our governments. If anything, peace is the message from those who have died in wars. Perhaps a time for a rededication to building cultures of peace, and infrastructures of peace. A time to talk about disarmament, especially nuclear weapons, for ending the wars humanity faces today, such as in Ukraine and the mid-east. That is what those before us would want. These are the wars of us all as a human species, and must end. There is no such thing as military victory, when a wasteland of dead is left behind.
Peace is always available at any moment , as a simple choice between those at war today. A choice for the future of our children.
Paul Maillet
Colonel retired
Accredited Peace Professional CPSC
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Violence begets violence. Peace begets peace. Why is this not understood?
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My father was in the First World War and lost his oldest brother in France. When I asked him about the war he said, "War is hell and nothing is gained by killing other people." I believe he carried the burden of post traumatic stress all of his life. He also said that he and ordinary soldiers would have starved to death except for the generosity of French farmers who gave them the food necessary to keep them alive. I do not celebrate war and so wear the white poppy!! Carol Pickup, Esquimalt, B.C
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