I am not taking part today.
Not because I think that coming up with the same questions doesn't show an effort on the part of the person who puts this meme online each week, but because I had a look at the site where the questions came from.
(And because all three anwers are: "nothing".)
The confrontation with the text of someone who thinks she needs to put Remembrance Day in a certain light.
The blog is about lifelong learning, but stopped in 2020.
It's made by someone in her twenties, unschooled, who clearly missed the social discussion about subjects and the nuances that brings to thoughtprocesses.
She ends her blogpost with stating that this holiday [..Remembrance Day..] acts in service of violence. And a bit before the end she ventilated her meaning that Remembrance Day is in service of nationalism.
I missed the substantiation of certain allegations she made. Only focussing on the negative and enlarging it to play on sentiment, without quoting the source.
She could have given other examples too, like that of Gino Farnetti and countless others who were not at all abused by those who came to bring freedom.
WW2 in Europe was not about oil or economical benefit.
In fact Canada joining was not to support the British as such.
Canada made the decision to join WW2 on September 10, 1939 based on what they saw as an enormous threat to Western civilization: Nazi Germany. What had been seen as a growing threat made people aware that any country could be drawn into the war and Canada thought it better to enter on it's own terms, asserting its sovereignty as an independent, souvereign nation. It wanted to ensure national unity and didn't want to be forced to join by actions of the Nazis.
Yes, there were ties with Britain, and of course this relationship was honored. There was no other way, because Britain coordinated the war effort and was strategically situated to enable better defence, but also better offensive actions against the growing military force that threatened people all over the world.
Canada did not only offer soldiers to fight with the allies, they provided food, materials and education.
In my experience Remembrance Day has nothing to do with war acts as such, even though they are presented in TV movies, historical accounts, and other documentaries to stress the importance of what was done against the nazis.
Many people forget that countries were occupied by the nazis.
The nazis and other germans who came here were no kind loving chaps, but brainwashed groups of military who thougt they should dominate the world. There were exceptions: soldiers who were forced to join under the threat of death of their family and who acted under pressure of their fellow soldiers.
My family, in The Netherlands, suffered badly.
People killed. Even a priest shot because he wouldn't cooperate with them, wouldn't betray the members of his family resistance group.
My gram had to flee, with her children, including a baby in the pram and a toddler who couldn't walk.... and return... as people were too afraid to take them in for the night. None was safe!
I can tell this young lady about a lot of real experiences of people who suffered in this war.
Like her I don't like the word: "Hero".
Mainly because americans use the word for everyone who has done something.
But people have done many outstanding things and put their own life in danger to keep others from harm.
The acknowledgement has never come for many.
But they were the ones who made a real difference and whose acts and/or names will be remembered for many generations.
My father was just a young boy.
He was small, quick, and had an enormous endurance because he was always sporting and walking long distances. (And running away after another cheeky act. LOL!)
The family was a resistance group and managed to help many jewish people, airplane crews, and fellow resistance workers to escape. Our family consisted of a couple of printers and bookbinders, so that young boy was perfect for bringing information from one place to another.
When the germans came to pick up young people from the street to work in the warfactories in germany, and after his uncle was shot, my father managed to escape to England (without his mother knowing, until he arrived there, was interrogated and was granted the honor of a message send to the resistance that he was safe.)
My father joined the RAF. Not to engage in violence, as he was still feeling the effects of the german occupation, but to take part in bringing freedom.
As he said: he "could not do nothing!"
Yes, he came changed out of the war... but not because he saw his fellow men commit warcrimes, rape women and kill children, but because he experienced that many young men never returned home, that his friends had to be pulled from the returning plane... by him ... without limbs, changed into an almost unrecognisable lump of flesh.
Others would see that too... and still went into a plane to try to stop the war.
Yes.. I am against war... I am for freedom... uncountable times.
But there are people who see it fit to start a war... They are to blame!
Violence of war...
violence of oppression..
That's not what we remember on Remembrance Day.
We remember those boys who were torn from their families and friends, because they had the guts to stand up against a violent regime, endangering their own lives.
Personally I don't only remember those who were killed.
I have put in a lot of effort to make people aware that even those who survived the war gave their lives, because what they experienced was life changing.
I have spoken with one of the main and most famous pilots of WW2.
It was more than 60 years after WW2.
The way he spoke about his actions was one of the driving forces of me becoming a veteran psychologist, even though I had my education from a WW2 heavily decorated army chaplain years before.
He was seen as a hero, but he saw himself completely different. He deeply suffered from the actions he had taken to free us from evil. It went against his upbringing, his former self-perception. Like so many others he struggled with the question what to do in the face of violence.
Some go mad and do thing that can't be condoned, some commit suicide, others fall ill and sink into the hole of despair about the person they have become, others try to ignore themselves completely, etc etc.
So during Remembrance Day I remember all those men who came to bring us freedom. I grief all those lost lives...
Lost too even though they survived.
At places here in the country people also remember those who fought on "the wrong side", because their lives were lost too for the mad ideas of some, joined by Germans who pay respect to those who counteracted the nazis... fighting for freedom.
Oh, I didn't address her use of nationalism.
There was no nationalism...
Here in this area we had people from different nations among the troops who chased away the germans: Canadians, British, Americans, Polish, South Africans, etc etc.
And I go to Remembrance Day in London (because the people I remember worked in England).
No nationalism there....
So don't think you can steal the respect for Remembrance Day..
Don't do that...
Don't steal the grief for lost lives...
because also in war each life that is lost is a life lost.
Happy easter.
Not because I think that coming up with the same questions doesn't show an effort on the part of the person who puts this meme online each week, but because I had a look at the site where the questions came from.
(And because all three anwers are: "nothing".)
The confrontation with the text of someone who thinks she needs to put Remembrance Day in a certain light.
The blog is about lifelong learning, but stopped in 2020.
It's made by someone in her twenties, unschooled, who clearly missed the social discussion about subjects and the nuances that brings to thoughtprocesses.
She ends her blogpost with stating that this holiday [..Remembrance Day..] acts in service of violence. And a bit before the end she ventilated her meaning that Remembrance Day is in service of nationalism.
I missed the substantiation of certain allegations she made. Only focussing on the negative and enlarging it to play on sentiment, without quoting the source.
She could have given other examples too, like that of Gino Farnetti and countless others who were not at all abused by those who came to bring freedom.
WW2 in Europe was not about oil or economical benefit.
In fact Canada joining was not to support the British as such.
Canada made the decision to join WW2 on September 10, 1939 based on what they saw as an enormous threat to Western civilization: Nazi Germany. What had been seen as a growing threat made people aware that any country could be drawn into the war and Canada thought it better to enter on it's own terms, asserting its sovereignty as an independent, souvereign nation. It wanted to ensure national unity and didn't want to be forced to join by actions of the Nazis.
Yes, there were ties with Britain, and of course this relationship was honored. There was no other way, because Britain coordinated the war effort and was strategically situated to enable better defence, but also better offensive actions against the growing military force that threatened people all over the world.
Canada did not only offer soldiers to fight with the allies, they provided food, materials and education.
In my experience Remembrance Day has nothing to do with war acts as such, even though they are presented in TV movies, historical accounts, and other documentaries to stress the importance of what was done against the nazis.
Many people forget that countries were occupied by the nazis.
The nazis and other germans who came here were no kind loving chaps, but brainwashed groups of military who thougt they should dominate the world. There were exceptions: soldiers who were forced to join under the threat of death of their family and who acted under pressure of their fellow soldiers.
My family, in The Netherlands, suffered badly.
People killed. Even a priest shot because he wouldn't cooperate with them, wouldn't betray the members of his family resistance group.
My gram had to flee, with her children, including a baby in the pram and a toddler who couldn't walk.... and return... as people were too afraid to take them in for the night. None was safe!
I can tell this young lady about a lot of real experiences of people who suffered in this war.
Like her I don't like the word: "Hero".
Mainly because americans use the word for everyone who has done something.
But people have done many outstanding things and put their own life in danger to keep others from harm.
The acknowledgement has never come for many.
But they were the ones who made a real difference and whose acts and/or names will be remembered for many generations.
My father was just a young boy.
He was small, quick, and had an enormous endurance because he was always sporting and walking long distances. (And running away after another cheeky act. LOL!)
The family was a resistance group and managed to help many jewish people, airplane crews, and fellow resistance workers to escape. Our family consisted of a couple of printers and bookbinders, so that young boy was perfect for bringing information from one place to another.
When the germans came to pick up young people from the street to work in the warfactories in germany, and after his uncle was shot, my father managed to escape to England (without his mother knowing, until he arrived there, was interrogated and was granted the honor of a message send to the resistance that he was safe.)
My father joined the RAF. Not to engage in violence, as he was still feeling the effects of the german occupation, but to take part in bringing freedom.
As he said: he "could not do nothing!"
Yes, he came changed out of the war... but not because he saw his fellow men commit warcrimes, rape women and kill children, but because he experienced that many young men never returned home, that his friends had to be pulled from the returning plane... by him ... without limbs, changed into an almost unrecognisable lump of flesh.
Others would see that too... and still went into a plane to try to stop the war.
Yes.. I am against war... I am for freedom... uncountable times.
But there are people who see it fit to start a war... They are to blame!
Violence of war...
violence of oppression..
That's not what we remember on Remembrance Day.
We remember those boys who were torn from their families and friends, because they had the guts to stand up against a violent regime, endangering their own lives.
Personally I don't only remember those who were killed.
I have put in a lot of effort to make people aware that even those who survived the war gave their lives, because what they experienced was life changing.
I have spoken with one of the main and most famous pilots of WW2.
It was more than 60 years after WW2.
The way he spoke about his actions was one of the driving forces of me becoming a veteran psychologist, even though I had my education from a WW2 heavily decorated army chaplain years before.
He was seen as a hero, but he saw himself completely different. He deeply suffered from the actions he had taken to free us from evil. It went against his upbringing, his former self-perception. Like so many others he struggled with the question what to do in the face of violence.
Some go mad and do thing that can't be condoned, some commit suicide, others fall ill and sink into the hole of despair about the person they have become, others try to ignore themselves completely, etc etc.
So during Remembrance Day I remember all those men who came to bring us freedom. I grief all those lost lives...
Lost too even though they survived.
At places here in the country people also remember those who fought on "the wrong side", because their lives were lost too for the mad ideas of some, joined by Germans who pay respect to those who counteracted the nazis... fighting for freedom.
Oh, I didn't address her use of nationalism.
There was no nationalism...
Here in this area we had people from different nations among the troops who chased away the germans: Canadians, British, Americans, Polish, South Africans, etc etc.
And I go to Remembrance Day in London (because the people I remember worked in England).
No nationalism there....
So don't think you can steal the respect for Remembrance Day..
Don't do that...
Don't steal the grief for lost lives...
because also in war each life that is lost is a life lost.
I respect your choiuce here, not being familiar with the context, but knowing that you are a substantial individual. Happy Easter (it's gonna be a LONG service today).
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