In honour of Remembrance Day, here is a reading of John McRae's In Flanders' Fields, as read by the CBC's Michael Enright.



In honour of my own grandfathers, whose courage and sacrifice ensured that I inherited the rights and freedoms I cherish today, here is a poignant song by Roland Majeau.



Lest We Forget.

And had just said last night that no one had posted anything to make me cry.



Lest we forget



Went out this afternoon a young girl who is helping her grandmother at the store told a customer he was being disrespectful to veterans talking during the moment of silence. Apparently he left. I think she is 14.

We attended the service here this morning. Big crowd this year too, which is always good to see, especially when so many bring their kids to pay their respects. Sad though that there are so few veterans left to march in the parade...

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LEST WE FORGET

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I'm sorry folks and I seriously don't want to sound like I'm complaining especially on a day like today but I've got to get this off my chest. So, if you'd bear with me I'd appreciate it and I'm pretty sure alot of the Vet's on this forum will understand what I'm talking about and why I feel the way I do at the moment.

We ran another Remembrance Day Service at our Local Cenotaph and unfortunately it was a giant cluster fek from start to finish. People with important positions didn't show up and Legion personnel who had the responsibility to ensure things were done and people were assigned, didn't.

The program was wrong, the timings were wrong and the sequence of events was wrong. As the Parade Marshall I've been after them for the 3 years to fix these problems but, all I've ever heard from the President and clique was, "we're not the military" or, from a past President "we don't do it that way because this service is really for the community" and my favourite "well civilians don't know the difference so it doesn't matter anyway"

I'm sorry but, this attitude is a shining example of why veterans from my generation and later won't join the Legion and why the organization is in trouble. The Legions seems to have far to many people in positions of power that neither understand or care about Esprit Des Corps, military etiquette and proper protocol, all things included in the Legion manuals. They seem to be much more concerned about getting Medals and making sure that they keep their positions from anyone they consider a threat to their authority.

So, while it's laudable that the Legion still claims to be there for the veterans the reality may just be something totally different. A fact that was never more evident than when they backed the Gov'ts position on abolishing military pensions for Veterans.

The Royal Canadian Legion was founded in 1926 by Veterans who'd returned from the killing grounds of WWI Europe and was designed to be a quasi military organization that followed the military ethos, ethics and protocol. But, somewhere through the decades they lost their way and it has now devolved into an organization that more resembles the Elk's or Eagles than an organization made up of and for the Veterans.

Now don't get me wrong, there are some fine outstanding military and non military personnel in the Legions across the country who are actually more concerned about the organization and the veterans than getting ahead but they seem to be getting fewer and farther in between which is part of the reason the Legions find themselves in such dire straights.

Both my parents were WWII veterans and longtime Legion members and when they were alive they made it quite clear to me the importance of the Legion and it's responsibilities. Well, if they were alive today they'd be so embarrassed about what "their" organization had become that I'm pretty sure they'd never set foot in it again.

But, for anyone who read this thanks for listening and may I add my voice to the others on this board who have honoured our fallen hero's.

RIP.