Je Me Souviendrai

It means “I will remember.” Tomorrow is November 11. Remembrance Day. We have a phrase that is associated with this day: “Lest We Forget.” But lately it’s starting to feel like it may be too late for that. A great many of us seem to have already forgotten. Our day of remembrance has lost its meaning.

I have a friend named Shannon who posted something on her Facebook page recently lamenting the fact that, in our rush, rush, rush to get ready for the shopping bonanza we call Christmas (another holiday that has lost its meaning), we have swept aside Remembrance Day. Her post received lots of supporting posts and one curious one that essentially asked why we need to remember. “The way I see it is that this is the job they chose like the rest of us have jobs.” That is a direct quote, cut and pasted directly from the post.

I felt that that comment demanded a response. You see, they weren’t doing “the job they chose.” That would be a true statement if every man and women who went and fought in the two great wars were career soldiers. But they weren’t. The vast majority of them left “the job they chose” and volunteered. They answered their country’s call to arms because their country needed them. The world needed them to defend it against the Nazis and the Fascists. They did it out of a sense of patriotism, a sense of honour. They did it because it was the right thing to do.

My father wasn’t a career soldier. It wasn’t the job he chose. But he left “the job he chose,” with the blessing of his employer, and did what thousands of other Canadians did – answered his country’s call. For his trouble, he was rewarded with a fractured skull and the memories of the first 22 years of his life erased. He woke up in a British hospital after 2 weeks in a coma with no memory. He had to relearn everything. Everything.

Fortunately for my father, a friend of his was also recovering in the same hospital from injuries he had sustained at Dieppe. His name was Harvey Inskip. While charging the beach, a bullet had hit Harvey’s left arm almost straight on at the hand. It had travelled up the entire length of his forearm and passed through his upper arm just above the elbow. He showed me the scar once. There was a furrow that ran the entire length of the inside of his forearm. It made it difficult to straighten his arm. Some people might dismiss that because he was doing "the job he chose," right? Except that it wasn’t “the job he chose.” He chose to be a teacher. But when his country said it needed him to be a soldier, he said yes. It was the right thing to do.

Harvey helped the British doctors to fill in the forgotten pieces of my father’s life. Most of the memories never came back but some of them did, thanks in large part to Harvey and a great many others who supported him when he came home.

My father relearned basic arithmetic. He relearned how to read and write. He relearned a lot. He was fortunate. He survived. Many didn’t.

I tried to explain this to the person on Facebook. Maybe I was too forceful. I don’t know. This was her reply, word for word:

“I have apparently offended some people with my comments but I was under the impression that with everybody talking about our freedom that doesn't apply to MY freedom and MY freedom to my own opinion.”

If I am reading her response correctly, she is saying that the men and women we remember tomorrow left the safety of their homeland and went and fought and many died defending her right to take them for granted and her freedom to dismiss the importance of their sacrifices. Am I reading it right? Because, if so, WOW! Talk about arguing out of both sides of your mouth!

But back to Shannon’s point. She correctly points out that we haven’t even had Remembrance Day and we are already being inundated with TV commercials, newspaper flyers and so on for Canadian Tire, Future Shop, Sears and hundreds of other retailers reminding us that it’s only seven weeks ‘til Christmas! Come on people, get out there and shop, shop, shop! There was a time when we set Remembrance Day apart. There was no shopping on Remembrance Day. But not any more. Now we can shop, shop, shop, but only holiday hours (which irks most retailers no end).

I find myself wondering why these retailers can’t stop for a moment to thank our veterans for fighting and dying to defend their freedom to sell us valve covers, snowboards and microwave ovens. I would love to see a Canadian Tire commercial where the camera pans over a field of white crosses surrounded by red poppies with a simple message of “Thank You” or “Lest We Forget.” Thirty seconds of just that. Put a little Canadian Tire logo down in the corner if you like. I don’t mind. Just stop for a moment and say thanks. Would that really be so hard?

So tomorrow I will make sure that I take time to remember. I won’t be doing any shopping. I will remember them every time I see a poppy on someone’s lapel. I will stop at 11:00 and take a minute of silence to thank God for the Gene Mechlers and Harvey Inskips and all the rest of our fathers and grandfathers who were willing to lay down their lives, if necessary, to ensure that the Nazis and Fascists didn’t go on to rule the world. The whole world. They fought for us all, even the ones who take them for granted.

Je me souviendrai. I will remember.