Various Veins
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“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”
– Laurence Binyon, Ode of Remembrance
Reporters routinely ask, "What went through your mind when you..."
Fill in any experience here.
On Sunday morning Martha and I watched the observation of Remembrance Day in Ottawa from the warmth of our home. Here are some thoughts that went through my mind.
For years I took my camera to photograph the parades to the cenotaph in Port Burwell, sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in rain.
I remember the thrill of the bugle belling the notes of The Last Post out across Lake Erie from the lips of Bill Popham or Comrade Jack Carroll, and the electric notes of promise of reveille.
I remember the return to the warmth of the Legion Hall for hot chocolate and greeting old friends.
I thought of the men and women fallen out of the ranks during those years, and some of the stories they left with me.
Many were reluctant to speak of the horrors they held in their minds. Late in his life, Comrade George Palmer shared some of those memories – some funny, some heart breaking.
I thought about the outrage of Comrade Graham Phillips when he was informed he could not vote in elections unless he took an oath of allegiance to the Crown. He fought in the Royal Canadian Navy as a British subject. All Canadians were British subjects until Canada's constitution was moved out of London, England to Ottawa, Canada. I didn't blame Graham for refusing to take the oath. Where was the grandfather clause?
Those veterans are remembered in the activities this week. No questions are raised of loyalty. Their services are stronger evidence than any formal oath.
There is the woman in London demanding a national holiday on November 11. I wonder if she knows we had a school holiday in Ontario for a time. When it became obvious many young people did not understand the significance of the day, treating it as any other chance to get out of class, veterans asked for a change. Schools then held assemblies to educate students about those who served and those who died defending freedom.
Be careful what you ask for.
I thought of the pictures my son and my grandson brought home form a tour of war cemeteries in Europe and the profound effect that tour had on them both.
I thought about veteran Mahlon Chute who for years would dive under the nearest table if someone slammed a door behind him, and wondered how the veterans in Ottawa held their poise during the roaring 21-gun salute.
Comrade George Palmer told me of finding himself cowering behind a stone wall in the street after a shell tore open the room where he was billeted. He had no idea how he got there!
I thought of the man who served in the Canadian Merchant Navy who is fighting for a pension today. The importance of those crews who sailed from Halifax with tons of supplies for Britain was noted on Sunday. Sir Winston Churchill assessed the success of the war effort by comparing tonnage that reached the beleaguered island and that sunk by the wolf pack of German U-boats.
I wondered, and still am enraged, that the person who refuses to grant the pension does so on the grounds the sailor was not on actual duty when he was injured. He was in the head! It's very unlikely he got off the ship and walked to a privy on shore.
Why does this nit-picker have tenure, unreachable by the ombudsman for veterans or by the Minister of Veterans Affairs?
Something for the Prime Minister to look into.