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Remembrance Day and Why We Must Cherish Our Nation’s Past
by Gerry Bowler

Commentary

Surely, the worst aspect of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of senile dementia is the loss of our ability to remember. Without memory, we are mere bodies trapped in the present without links to our families, our surroundings, and even our own personalities. Because the creature that we were—with all our likes, dislikes, loyalties, loves, quirks, failings, and triumphs—has ceased to be truly present, we are lost to ourselves and others, unable to make sense of the world.

Memory is as important to a nation as it is to an individual. This is why a sensible country fills itself with a host of symbols, artifacts, and images that link its citizens to the past. It puts the faces of heroes on its currency: George Washington on the American dollar, Winston Churchill on the British £5 note, and Alexander Suvorov on the Transnistrian ruble. It fills public spaces with memorials to great men and women or military victories, such as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the statue of Simón Bolivar in Caracas, and giant portraits of Sun Yat-sen in Taipei. National anthems sing of collective memories: “Allons enfants de la Patrie,” “And the rocket’s red glare,” or “In days of yore, from Britain’s shore, Wolfe the dauntless hero came.”

This is why our national holiday called Remembrance Day is such an important occasion. In countless little ceremonies at cenotaphs, schools, and parks and in the solemn assembly that takes place every Nov. 11 at the foot of the great National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canadians gather in a united memory.

We become mindful of two important truths. The first is that war is a horrible business, one that takes lives, that requires sacrifices from our sons and daughters that we are committed never to forget. The second is that the world is a dangerous place and that Canadians often have been called upon to respond in a warlike manner; indeed, the name of that bronze military statuary on our capital city’s cenotaph is “The Response.”

Continues:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/remembrance-day-and-why-we-must-cherish-our-nations-past_3136710.html

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