Faithfully yours - Lessons we must never forget – part one
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- Published on Friday, October 23, 2015
By Neil Strohschein
The Neepawa Banner
By the time you read this column, the 2015 federal election will be over. The attack ads will have disappeared (praise God!!).
The signs will be picked up (just in time for road maintenance crews to cut the grass before the first snowfall) and the voters, having exercised their democratic right, will now revert to doing what they do best—critiquing the government in power and wondering what they were thinking (or if they were thinking) when they enacted the laws they did.
These are rights we often take for granted. This is especially true of those who (like me and my children) were born in the years following World War II. We did not live through the horror of two world wars. Nor were we around when some of the key human rights battles (like granting women the right to vote) were fought; so we have very little understanding of the sacrifices that people made so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have in a democratic society.
Our understanding of these issues is based on the stories we have been told by others. Some are stories we have heard first hand—from grandparents, great grandparents or friends who lived through, and in some cases, fought in a world war. We also have access to books and videos that show (at times in graphic detail) the terrible carnage inflicted on those who answered the call of king and country to fight against tyrants bent on world domination.
A lot has changed in the years since WWII ended. We have reduced the size of our armed forces, consolidated military bases and spent more time quibbling over the cost of new machines than making absolutely certain that when they are deployed, our soldiers, sailors and fliers have the training and equipment they need to safely complete their missions.
And then, when they come home, those who need help dealing with the physical injuries and emotional trauma suffered while on duty often do not get the help they need. Aging veterans, especially those living in remote communities, no longer have convenient access to Veterans’ Affairs case workers. Their offices have been consolidated and regionalized. The personalized service they once received is no longer available. Is it any wonder then, that so many of those who put their lives on the line for Canada and Canadians feel let down and abandoned?
As for me, I can not visit a cemetery, tour the Legion section of that cemetery and look at the rows of identical grave markers, each of which identifies the final resting place of a Canadian veteran, without wondering what they might say to our leaders and to us if they could comment on the way we appear to be treating our military personnel and our veterans.
Their voices are silenced forever. But, so far at least, mine isn’t. So beginning today and for the next five weeks, I want to share some principles that, in my view, guided our ancestors as they fought in two world wars, waded through the quagmire of the Great Depression and dealt with the numerous social, political and economic challenges we have faced since then.
I leave you today with these words of wisdom. They are one of many variations of an original quote attributed to Spanish philosopher George Santayana. “Those who will not learn from their past will be condemned to repeat it.” Next week, I will share the first of five lessons we can learn from our country’s past—lessons we must never forget.
