4 June 2018

The debt we have wasted.

On Memorial Day, 1945, the Americans held a ceremony at an American military cemetery in Italy to mark the day. The chief speaker was General Lucian Truscott jr. The general mounted the podium to give a speech, but, to the surprise of all assembled, he turned his back on the gathered crowd and instead addressed the dead. He apologized to them, and begged their forgiveness if his mistakes lead to their deaths, though he knew he was asking for a lot. He also said that he found nothing glorious in the death of young men, and he promised the dead that if he heard anyone saying otherwise, he would straighten them out.

I think of that moment often, especially during election years. I think we Canadians should send a delegation to our war graves in Europe and elsewhere, and apologize to our dead.

Start with those of the First World War, our bloodiest war with over 67,000 dead- nearly one per cent of our population at that time. These young men believed they were fighting for something greater than themselves, a chance to rebuild the world anew. But the old men who sent them and the incompetents who lead them merely spilled their blood pointlessly, time after time after time after time, and with the chance bought by these young men with their blood, those old men merely made the old world all over again, and made certain another war would come.

And so our men fought again, this time against one of the greatest evils Man has ever created. The believed they were protecting future generations and preserving democracy for their children, and their children's children. And so they did. with over 44,000 men paying the ultimate price for this cause. And what have we done with their gift?

Horvath, Wynne and Ford. That's what we have done. Our people now are more ignorant that ever about how the government works or is supposed to work. They no longer know nor care who their actually representative may be, are no longer interested that a government of one person with a bunch of flunkies may not be in the best interest of our land. We have betrayed the democracy our honored dead died to preserve to parties who care not for the welfare of the people, but only for their select little groups of preferred citizens, the useful idiots who vote for these parasites out of the hope for some crumbs.

As a people we deserve nothing more than to hang our heads in shame, fall on our knees, and beg forgiveness of the dead for wasting their lives.

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