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rememberance day (pg. 15)
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| zoogla |
| quote: | Originally posted by Moral Hazard
I'll accept that some people volunteered for dubious reasons, others for honorable ones. In the Second Great War my maternal grandfather volunteered the very day Canada declared war on Germany... he did so because he wanted to help free his ancestral home (his father was born in Germany) of the Nazis and because he feared German aggression would threaten the entire world. My paternal grandfather volunteered when he learned that conscription would be enacted because he feared being conscripted and though volunteering was more honorable. So one grandfather joined because he wanted to help rid the world of Nazism, the other joined because he figured he's have to go anyway and choosing to was better then being forced. One of them landed on Juno beach where his closest friend was promptly shot and a fragment of the bullet that killed his friend exited his friend and tore his knee open. He continued to fight and eventually made it off the beach despite dragging his right leg and suffering a life long impairment. The other served in a field ambulance crew and lost two partners to land mines while recovering wounded soldiers going on to be deathly frightened of loud noises and flashes of light for the rest of his life. I don't think it matters which joined for which reason as their actions were equally noble and their sacrifices equally appreciated. |
that's ing awesome and thanks for sharing!!! I love your grandfather already. it's stories like that that I'm talking about which makes me very sad on remembrance day, or for that matter when i see a clip of war on TV.
and jay, by the time my dad chose to come to Toronto (late 70s) most of that change had already occurred so it wasn't so gimpy. although he probably did smell like curry...the same way i smell like pasta ;) |
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| wienerschnitzel |
| i heard hitler had good intentions anyway.. |
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| Moral Hazard |
| quote: | Originally posted by fayraree
right, so point being hitler or no hitler, we still had pretty ed up racist values of our own that took decades of internal social evolution to counter, not foreign policy which was basically whatever the US or Britain did. Canada was always a gimp according to my historical studies. |
I'm not sure that you can really make that claim. Just because our interests were in-line with the UK in the first and Second Great Wars, with the UN for Korea and the first Gulf War, and with NATO for the Afghanistan War doesn't make us wimps so much as a good ally. For a country with this much territory and so few people good allies are important... in order to have them we must also be one. |
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| yankeeBaby |
| quote: | Originally posted by XaNaX
how is 2 minutes of silence = to treating someone like a god. Two minutes isn't a lot to give someone who prevented me from having to wear a swastika and worship Hitler and who kept people who were of "undesirable" race or religion out of labor camps and gas chambers. |
agreed! |
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| elFreak |
| quote: | Originally posted by fayraree
that's ing awesome and thanks for sharing!!! I love your grandfather already. it's stories like that that I'm talking about which makes me very sad on remembrance day, or for that matter when i see a clip of war on TV.
and jay, by the time my dad chose to come to Toronto (late 70s) most of that change had already occurred so it wasn't so gimpy. although he probably did smell like curry...the same way i smell like pasta ;) |
the values in the 70's were possible because of what happened in the 30's/40's so sorry no dice. |
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| wienerschnitzel |
| quote: | Originally posted by fayraree
that's ing awesome and thanks for sharing!!! I love your grandfather already. it's stories like that that I'm talking about which makes me very sad on remembrance day, or for that matter when i see a clip of war on TV.
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don't you think that most veterens have a story like that? |
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| Frenchie |
| quote: | Originally posted by yankeeBaby
agreed! |
+1
I somehow missed this.
There is a good chance I'd have to wear one or be dead if not what my family fought for...against the other side of my family. |
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| Moral Hazard |
| quote: | Originally posted by elFreak
the values in the 70's were possible because of what happened in the 30's/40's so sorry no dice. |
so we can blame Stalin and Churchill for orange plaid bell-bottoms... |
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| elFreak |
| i blame arch duke ferdinand. |
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| zoogla |
| Franz Ferdinand is a DJ isn't he? |
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| Moral Hazard |
| quote: | Originally posted by wienerschnitzel
don't you think that most veterens have a story like that? |
+1... in my grandfather's own words (in explaining why he does not display his medals... one of only two times he actually talked to me about the war); "I'm no hero, I was just one of thousands that fought on a beach because the fight had to happen. The only thing that sets me apart from most of them is that I happened to survive being shot." Most veterans have stories to tell, all did their part, all sacrificed more then we could imagine. |
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| zoogla |
| quote: | Originally posted by elFreak
the values in the 70's were possible because of what happened in the 30's/40's so sorry no dice. |
omg so ww2 is the fabric of our souls. holy i had no idea you held it that importantly. |
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