I was thinking about how in Canada we call it Rememberance Day, while in the US they call it Veteran's Day. Maybe I'm just showing my patriotic bias, but personally I think that Rememberance Day is a better fit. I think of a veteran as being someone who served in the war but then came back. I don't usually equate the word 'veteran' with the people who didn't come back, who still lie near where they fought.
One thing that came to me, a couple years ago maybe, was the fact that the men who died during the wars never got to find out if their side won or not. They died never knowing whether they made a difference. Did they consider that, as they lay dying? Or were they at the point at which they didn't care anymore?
When I was in Italy and France on the Battlefield Tour in grade 11, the thing that struck me was that there are signs of the World Wars all over the place. There are cemetaries right beside town roads, and bullet holes in the sides of buildings. People there are just so much more aware of the cost and effects of war. They see it every day. We met people who were there when their towns were liberated by the Allies, and they still appreciate what happened way back then, 60 years ago. We don't have that in North America, in Canada. We don't see the huge cemetaries with thousands of graves, we don't see the sights where our soldiers died, we don't really understand what happens when there is a war going on. In so many ways we are so lucky because of that, but in another way it really limits how we feel about it.
Generally speaking I'm a pacifist - I believe that war is archaic and that we should be at a point where we don't have to use bombs and guns to solve issues. On the other hand, if war is going to continue as a 'solution' for decades to come, I almost want to go out and experience it so that I know what it's really all about. So that if one day I do go into politics, I can form an opinion based on personal experience.
For now, though, all I can do is think about the things I've learned and seen, and remember the fights and those who fought, those who lived and those who died.
N'oublions jamais...