Remebrance Day - Is forgetting the issue?

Remembrance Day – then called Armistice Day – was started at the end of the “War to End War”, to commemorate the thousands of Canadians who lost their lives in the fight.

Two symbols came to represent that day: the poppy, from the poem “In Flanders’ Fields”, and the quote “Lest We Forget”.

Almost a hundred years, and numerous wars, later, we still see these symbols every November. But I have to ask whether the second, at least, is not out of date.

After WWI, people did not want to forget the loss of their fathers, husbands and sons, and they did not want others to forget, either. At that time the quote no doubt made those who saw it stop and comtemplate all they and their families had suffered.

But is it possible to forget – or remember – something which one never experienced? As there is no longer anyone left alive who went through this time, “Lest We Forget” no longer has any real meaning.

If we truly want to keep Remembrance Day as what it was intended to be, a commemoration of loss and a vow to handle things better in the future, then maybe we need to start with a new quote more meaningful to the people of today. Because each year I see it become less a recalling the horrors of war and more a celebration of the glory of our military. And that is exactly the opposite of what Remembrance Day should be.