Earn This

The title of this entry comes from the classic Stephen Spielberg movie “Saving Private Ryan.” As my brother knows very well this line gets me every time. It’s sad because (spoiler alert) it’s muttered in the dying breathes of Tom Hanks’ character to Matt Damon- aka Private Ryan- as a reminder that so many men gave their lives so that he would live, so his mother didn’t have to face that three of her sons died in WWII.

I used to wonder how one person could earn that… how one man could live his life well enough to make up for those who lost theirs? Trying to earn it could drive one person so insane that they may give up as a result of never feeling good enough. Because how does one go about living their life to make up for everything that they gave up? These men, about the same age as Ryan (with the exception of Hanks, who already had a family), could have gone on to have wives, children, grandchildren, etc. and it was up to Ryan to earn everything they gave up. Private Ryan did, and as he visits the graves we see him with his wife, children, grandchildren and he questions whether he was a good man, whether he lived his life well enough. And I guess we’re supposed to feel like that’s enough, live your life to the best of your ability and that will have to suffice.

I don’t intend to give movie reviews here or to contemplate all of Spielberg’s classics (although I may revert to Schindler’s List when I finally visit Auschwitz or E.T. when I need to discuss possible alien life). I used Saving Private Ryan as an example because a) it’s a darn good movie and b) the whole earn this concept is quite fitting for the day.

It’s Remembrance Day. Growing up it was merely a day off school and a reason to waste half a school day at an assembly on the 10th. As I got older it was time and a half at work. Sure, I bought the poppies, and I replaced them when they fell off my lapel (which is quite often), I wore them as if the day was significant to me but felt mostly like a lemming, pinning it to my jackets or work clothes merely as a statement that I comply with this tradition.

In the past couple years, maybe as I educated myself more on the history of Canada in the wars or as I matured and realized what this day means, I began to think about why we have this day, why we pause at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

Canadian Military Personnel Killed
* First World War: 66,655
* Second World War: 44,893
* Korean conflict: 516
* Peacekeeping: 121
* Afghanistan: 87

During World War I Canada sent 620,000 soldiers to fight and over 66,000 were killed. There are few, if any (the internet gives me unreliable stats) WWI veterans still alive in Canada and their average age would be over 100.

In World War II over one million Canadians fought in World War II, most of whom were my age or younger and almost 45,000 of them did not return. There are over 268,000 WWII veterans — including over 30,000 women —alive in Canada and their average age is over 80.

These men and women gave their lives - their futures - to protect our lives and freedom in conflicts that luckily many of us will never have to experience. We will never know what they had to fight against or the hell they lived through because they made this ultimate sacrifice for us, so that we would have the possibility for a future.

But why must we remember? Why must my generation- most of which have no memory of war or could never conceive of what life must be like to live through that- take a day to remember these men and women who are long gone?

Because as a human race, as human beings, we must remember what has been lost, what has been gained and what has been sacrificed in order for us to live this way. The memory of the lowest and most significant points in our human history pushes us forward; it evolves us as humans and hopefully prevents mankind from having to live through such violence again.

Remembrance day makes us take pause in our busy lives, the lives in which we are free and able to do as we choose in our great country because of these men and women who worked so hard to protect that freedom.

We are here today because of them, we are here to honor them and we are here to thank them. I only hope that as a society we will continue to remember them and earn what they have so graciously given us.

It is because of these men and women that Canada is the great place that it is today.

DISCLAIMER:
I know I have been very vocal in my extreme opposition to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but today is not a day to argue the merits of these wars. Today is not the day to fight over whether one believes that war is necessary right now; there are 364 other days of the year to do that and I hope that I have successfully made my comments as unbiased as possible.