Canadians And War

It has come to light that disrespectful humans enjoy travelling to the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge in order to perform lewd acts, film them, and post them online. It's not the porn that bothers me, it's that people would find it appropriate to do it at a freaking war memorial. It's incredibly insulting to humanity, and we all know it, so I'll let the Canadian security detail work out what they'll do about it on the land that France gave us.

But there's another thought that was sprung after reading the article: the Canadian perspective on war and memorials.

"In 1940 Hitler, responding to allegations in the Canadian media that German forces occupying France had destroyed the memorial, toured the site and posed for photographs.

A veteran of trench warfare in France during the First World War, the infamous Nazi leader insisted that the memorial be protected, even though German soldiers had destroyed other French war memorials.

Vimy, unlike the other memorials, didn't carry a message of French triumph over the Germans.

"It was dedicated to sacrifice, loss of life, and remembrance," University of Ottawa historian Serge Durflinger told Canwest News Service last year. He added that Hitler admired the memorial immensely, and so the Germans respected it as well."

This idea comes up a lot from the Canadian perspective; we honour Remembrance Day (as many other Nations do) as a day to ponder loss and sacrifice, to remember what was being protected and the people who did it, rather than glorify battle or victory. Because there is no victory in war. The American National Anthem sings out proud of "the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air" - we would never boisterously celebrate such things! We pride ourselves for being International Peacekeepers and even print it on our money - along with a verse of Flanders Fields.

I don't have any real point to make here, it's just a thought that passed by my cubicle door and ended up on my screen.