Perhaps what makes this year's observance of Remembrance Day most heart-rending is our conversation with Gaby, our dear friend who lives in present day Flanders. Lee recalled him telling a story the first time they met about how he had to guard a bridge during World War II. After our day in Ypres, I invited him to tell us about his memory of that time, but instead he told us about his father, who fought in the trenches right to the end of the first world war. Gaby said that even though the Armistice was signed on November 11th, 1918 at 11 a.m., the news did not reach his father's regiment until later in the day, just after his father's best friend died, one of the last military casualties in the trenches of World War I.
We sat in silence for a few moments after he told that story. How many others like it he could share, we'll probably never know.
But who remembers the more than 62 million civilians who also died, some through military action, others through resulting incarceration, famine and disease? Not to mention the soldiers and civilians who were injured and traumatized to the point that they couldn't go on with normal life? And then there's the decimation of the lands where war was made... more than 65 years after the last world war, we could still see the remnants of shell holes and concrete bunkers in Northern France.
My many days of remembrance this year have me thinking more deeply about how war can never bring about true peace. Witness how Canada's going to war in the Middle East brought about the deaths of two servicemen here in the last few weeks. Since then, I've been thinking that, during our Remembrance Days, we should remember not only those who died in our wars, but also reflect on peace and our role in it.
Last year we attended the Remembrance Day ceremony at the University of Alberta, but this year, I plan to join the Edmonton Ecumenical Peace Network in its prayer service and Public Prayer Walk for Peace. It starts at McDougall United Church (10025 101 Street) at 6 p.m. on Remembrance Day, well after the 11 a.m. moment of silence that we'll attend at our Legislature grounds.
God bless all those who have died in war, and grant us peace.
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