"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 9 November 2017

FEW CAN ESCAPE

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "PEACE AND HARMONY..CIRCA 2017":

Obviously 20:35 is a complete knob for a comment about war veterans. He/she knows nothing about how war wounds - physical or not - can impact a person for the rest of their lives. 

My Grandfather was wounded at the Calonne Trench Raid ( http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol8/iss2/3/ ) in January 1917 and was never the same. 

This commenter is a callous, ignorant blow hard that knows nothing about the "safe" environment that a mess (Men's, Sergeant's or Officer's) can provide those that did in fact survive the battles but have to live with the memories.

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 9 November 2017 at 13:


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Time passes, as well, those with memories. Shell shock, mustard gas, empty sleeves and wooden legs with rubber tips were familiar sights and references of my childhood.

A neighbour's washing included flannel cups to cushion the stump of a severed leg.

After the second war, burns were added to the list of horrors.

Impact on family lives was not much talked about. But the secret was ill-kept.

Survivors of the worst experiences could never bear to speak of them. Yes, they took refuge with comrades in Canadian Legions where they didn't need to speak of them. They knew what they had been through.
Nowadays, post-traumatic stress is recognized. Whether or not services are adequate to deal with
the problem is a different question.

Parents find solace that a son or daughter died doing what they wanted to do.

If that's true, why are survivors haunted and tormented by the memory?

Humans find ways to cope. Soon it becomes part of the daily ritual and life goes on.

Because it must.

It does not go on without sadness and grief and regret for what ought to have been.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...


The LAV did not appear to have a wreath of its own.

It has probably killed many, those of the enemy and our own.

Anonymous said...



Earlier this morning I tried to find on the town website what section of Yonge Street would be closed for the Remembrance Day parade. I found the date.

Why does the town have a website?

Beats me.

Anonymous said...

The Towns communications person has been deemed to have a degree in micro-management.
As many as four people have quit the department since their short tenure.