That rather handsome, 17-year-old young man to the left was Watts William Chadwick. My father, although he wouldn’t become that for many more years. So serious, so formal looking. A lot more so than I was at his age (I can’t say for sure that I even owned a tie
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Scripturient: Remembrance Day thoughts
An article on the Global News site titled “Fewer Canadians plan to wear poppies this Remembrance Day, poll finds” made me think again about what Remembrance Day is for. The article opens: Fewer people plan to participate in Remembrance Day ceremonies or wear poppies this year, according to a poll
Continue readingScripturient: 1914: My Grandfathers’ Year
As I read further into Max Hastings’ book, Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914, I wondered, as I have done in the past when reading similar books about that time, what my grandfathers must have felt when that war broke out. What it meant to them…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: America Is Shutting This Shit Down – John Oliver on Nuclear Weapons
The anniversary of World War I has been in the news as of late. Solemn words have been said, and in Canada, the funny idea that somehow it forged our nation from a quaint backwater into a respected player on the world stage. Sending people to die horrible deaths should
Continue readingRemember who? And for what?
Canada first observed Remembrance Day on November 11th, 1919, to commemorate the armistice that had ended WWI one year earlier and to remember those in the military who had given their lives in the war. The narrow focus on the military has become less legitimate—the majority of those who died
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