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TAKE ONE - We’re different!
Local See ker The We s t
E n d Community paper
DO YOU know your LOCAL Veterans ?
Vo l u m e 2 , I s s u e 2 2 , N o v 1 1 , 2 0 1 1 War vets show courage, commitment in the face of Poppygate
f ent o d i s e r ine, p rick Kisch v e L e k Fran ier Fred d Briga h 97. c Bran
They’re just red plastic flowers to some, but to many, many more individuals, pin-on poppies are about nothing less than freedom, respect and remembrance. On the days and weeks leading to Remembrance Day – honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us could live (and just imagine a world where Adolf Hitler was your leader, not just the guys you love to hate at the various levels of government today) – red poppies are seen everywhere. And wizened men sit behind rickety tables for hours, their faces wearied with age, offering you a poppy for whatever you are prepared to donate. Still, unbelievably, there are some entrepreneurs and business enterprises that refuse to let the veterans proffer their poppies, for reasons we can only guess at. Some separatist French-Quebecers see Canadian war remembrance as a federalist pursuit, forgetting that many of their own numbers perished, as well. “Je me souviens” apparently pertains to the horrible anglo plots hatched against them prior to 1976. Others too young to understand the meaning of world war to those in the Western Hemisphere don’t get what the big deal is. These are the people, I assume, who desecrate war memorials without a second thought. The biggest problem with that? If it ever happens again, who will fight for them?
Story and photos: Bram D. Eisenthal
NC E A R B REMEM ECIAL: P DAY S
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