Next Remembrance Day, let’s commit to peace
Re: “So many stories, so few Second World War vets left to tell them,” Nov. 11.
With a headline like that, you’d think war was this thing our grandparents did, thankfully receding into the rear-view. Certainly that’s how I imagined it as a nine-year-old boy scout at the cenotaph in years past.
But more of my peers and friends are veterans than I’d ever imagined when I was a kid. Several are even active service members, still. The real headline should be that the face of veterans is changing, fast.
As our grandparents pass on, the veteran in your life is no longer the proud retiree enjoying well-earned golden years.
It’s the director of communications at your office, it’s your favourite book publisher, the husband of a former co-worker or that woman who used to play trombone in your ska band (yes, I’m that old).
And I am sure that for them, just like Earl Clark, “every once in a while you wake up in the middle of the night and, boom, you’re right there.”
But I think the real point of Remembrance Day in 2022 can’t just be “saluting the vets.” I think the real power of this day is to stop, reflect, and remember all of the many victims of war.
Among us right now are tens of thousands of Ukrainians who would want us to remember. Let us reflect too on the hundreds of thousands of Russians who have fled their country for expressing those two dangerous words, “Nyet Voynye” — No War.
Let us resolve, then, to turn a new chapter on Remembrance Day for 2023 and live up to the gift that so many of the Greatest Generation bought us with their lives. Let’s spend Nov. 11, 2023, honouring, remembering, and recommitting ourselves to peace.
Adam Bailey
Tahsis
Let’s take another look at the legacy of war
Of particular interest in Remembrance Day has been the stories of the dwindling number of surviving veterans from the Second World War. Drawing attention to Rudi Hoenson, among these survivors and the atomic bomb he endured, is commendable, a historic event not often explored.
And yet, it is a curious date. Nov. 11 has absolutely nothing to do with the Second World War, but is a famous vestige from the First World War, when the guns fell silent, poetically on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Using this remarkable moment in time as a metaphor for all wartime suffering certainly conveys a message.
But oddly enough, it obscures a far more troubling message. That date might have ended the First World War but did not herald peace.
It almost immediately launched the Second World War for three reasons: It did not take into consideration the situation at the front, nor the situation within Germany, and finally played havoc with the future by imposing unrealistic conditions on the defeated party, a recipe for disaster.
And the Second World War brought far more civilian suffering than the First World War, at Nagasaki among numerous other cities.
Perhaps we should rethink the legacy from the past.
Boudewyn van Oort
surviving ex-child POW
Victoria
Let’s celebrate peace, not blasts from the past
Booms! Blasts! Bangs!
Why must Remembrance Day ceremonies entail these super loud reverberating cannon shots?
What purpose other than to remind us that “war” has these horrific components, with deaths as a result?
I’d much rather listen to “Ode to Peace” than “Blasts from the Past.”
John Vanden Heuvel
Victoria
They had their faults, but they are still heroes
I read with interest the pages recognizing the sacrifices veterans have made. These men fought and died so that we could live in relative freedom. They are dead and they are heroes.
Their names are etched onto memorial walls and cenotaphs as they should be. Lest we forget.
Beware of the zealots who would sanitize our history and chisel off the heroes’ names because they once worked at a residential school or uttered a racist statement. Indeed, some of our soldiers were conscripted out of prisons. Whatever their prior missteps, they died for us.
Significant historical events were almost always accomplished by individuals with faults. Their human frailty.
Should their accomplishments be erased because they don’t measure up to today’s standards? However history judges them, they did what they thought was best.
Should John A. Macdonald’s statue still stand, even though it is offensive to the sensitivities of his holier-than-thou critics?
It was taken down, and now how will our children know who it was that helped a movement that turned out to be so very wrong?
History should be based on facts, and viewed through a lens that takes into account human nature.
Don Boult
Saanich
Honouring the monarch still makes sense
Pleased to see the Remembrance ceremonies in Ottawa included laying a wreath in memory of Queen Elizabeth. During the Second World War, she donned a uniform and drove trucks in support of the war effort.
She deserves to be remembered for her long service to the Commonwealth. Too bad the B.C. Ferries decision-makers did not recognize the importance of belonging to the Commonwealth before deciding to solve a problem that didn’t exist by removing the King’s portrait without any input from the taxpayers.
A typical “make-work project” for senior staff looking to justify their overpaid jobs.
Better they should solve the numerous problems that already exist and which confront the travelling public on an almost daily basis.
Dorothy Mullen
Victoria
Maritime madness along our coastline
Two recent front-page stories of maritime-related issues must have the seafaring community scratching their heads.
As a boater, one look at the photo of the Arctic Fox II that capsized with the loss of two lives is that that vessel was likely top-heavy. There had been a lack of maintenance and a lack of inspections, according to the Transportation and Safety Board. Stability seems to be a common thread with some of the smaller commercial fishing vessels.
Now we have the brand-new B.C. Ferries vessel, Salish Heron, that weighs 48 tonnes more than the three older Salish-class ferries. The original specifications have been tinkered with so that now the ship can only carry lighter-weight vehicles, or fewer of the heavier commercial vehicles. Otherwise, it pulls away from the slip with open deck space.
How did this ship make it past the sea trials when it arrived in Victoria? Applying to Lloyds Registry to allow the ship to carry more weight in sheltered waters is a Band-Aid waiting to fall off once the storm season arrives.
For B.C.’s seafaring coastline, this is maritime madness.
Dennis Robinson
Saanich
Current measures do not work, try something else
“And we will build housing, we will build housing, we will build housing,” said Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto.
What does this mean? Who are we building housing for? Low-income families, older adults, those struggling with mental illness or active in addiction?
How are we paying for this? As home owners and business owners, we simply cannot manage higher property taxes.
We need vision, solutions, not more costly Band-Aids.
If we continue down the current path there will be many vacant homes listed at a discount. The downtown core is becoming an undesirable place to live due to crime, violence, imtimidation, vandalisim, theft and general filth.
Owners of new condos are selling at a loss to escape an area that is spiralling downhill and out of control.
We have lost the right to safely enjoy our city and parks.
Priorities achievable at the municipal level: Support police, support bylaw officers, stop camping in parks.
Lobby provincial and federal government to establish accessible person-centred long-term treatment facilities for mental health and addiction.
City councillors need to continue to dig deep and explore other locations where government is grappling with these issues in hopes of driving future success.
We know for certain that current measures are ineffective and a proactive, solution-focused municipal government is the only way forward.
Mike and Mokie Burnham
James Bay
Drs. Joanne Gaul and Joe Gallo
James Bay
Bonnie O’Reilly
James Bay
Jared Barabash and Lisa Cutlan
Victoria
Monarchy in Canada is a positive force
Re: “As monarch vanishes from ferries, take a deep breath,” column, Nov. 6.
I was brought up a monarchist, but was cured by living in England for three years around 1970. It became obvious that the Royal Family was the bulwark of the loathsome class system that prevailed then in England, and still survives to some extent there today.
But I nevertheless think monarchy is a better system of government than a presidential system like that in the U.S., where the politician who is head of government is invested with the aura of a head of state. It is much better to keep those two roles separate.
Fortunately, I don’t see the monarchy having the same negative social role in Canada that it does in Britain. In fact, I see it as one of the things helping Canada feel different from the U.S.
Leaving aside the fact that the monarchy was, if anything, a counterbalance to our predecessors’ worst excesses, I disagree with cancelling historical figures for simply being people of their time. And the cruelties of the past helped bring our country into being. If we abandon our history and our national symbols, we abandon Canada.
Moreover, King Charles is the only member of the Royal Family for whom I have much feeling. In a sense, I grew up with him, being myself about a year older.
I felt his tribulations, as he was sent to schools that did not suit him, and was forced into a marriage without love. And he is the one member of the family who has interesting ideas: about preserving tradition in architecture and about organic farming, for example.
I would be glad to see his portrait in the ferries. And on our coins, for that matter.
Greg Whincup
Sooke
Let’s learn to live with the region’s deer
Recent letters included complaints about small plants and seedlings being destroyed, apparently by deer.
I guess more than 90 days of drought did not contribute to that. Nope, it was the deer.
Damaging trees was another concern. The previous administration had no qualms about destroying trees, and this has spread to other municipalities. Look at the trees on Shelbourne being taken, against citizens’ wishes mind you, to build another bike path perhaps.
Those terrible deer, especially the bucks, are endangering lives of people and dogs. Really?
If you see a buck, walk away. If you see a deer with fawns and you allow your dog to harass them, the doe will protect her babies.
I have been following the deer story. The last time I looked into deer attacking humans, the provincial government claimed to have no record of this happening.
William Jesse
Victoria
Control deer populations with a cull, and soon
Deer do not belong in a city. In fact, they don’t belong anywhere their numbers can’t be kept in check by predation.
By removing their natural predators (except for automobiles), we city-dwellers have upset the ecological chain and allowed deer populations to increase to a level that cannot be supported by the environment.
It’s actually a tough life for deer in a city. They’re forced to compete with each other for plants that don’t normally form part of their diet; they risk being killed or injured by cars; and as their numbers increase they become vulnerable to malnutrition and disease.
As people fence their yards, plant deer-resistant species and pave properties, it becomes harder for the animals to forage. City people who think it’s romantic to see deer on their front lawn should either move to the country or should support the efforts of authorities to carry out a cull — the sooner, the better.
Far from being cruel, living up to our responsibilty to restore ecological balance would benefit deer as well as the young trees they destroy.
Barbara Abercrombie
Victoria
Stop the flow of raw logs out of our province
One hundred millworkers were laid off at Western Forest Products in Port Alberni “due to a lack of wood fibre.”
Am I the only one who sees the constant parade of trucks hauling logs out of Port Alberni? Not to mention shiploads and barge loads of (raw) logs heading “overseas” and out of town.
Why? It seems more money can be made quickly by selling these (raw) logs to the U.S. and/or foreign markets (without all the problems of having to hire 91原创 workers to operate our own sawmills).
It seems the U.S. may have laws that prevent the selling of U.S. logs offshore. So they buy ours — outbidding our own mills and pricing them out of the market. They then resell our logs (at a profit, of course).
Meanwhile, to ensure this practice continues, the U.S. legislators impose trade tariffs on our “finished” wood products — in spite of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement.
This has been going on for years. What has the government done to stop the rape of our forests by these robber barons?
We cannot count on Ottawa to act, as the major political parties in Ottawa don’t need B.C. votes to form the federal government. We either need the B.C. government to enact legislation or we must take direct action to protect our forest workers.
I have advocated for years not one (raw) log should leave this country. You want our wood, buy our lumber.
R.L. (Dusty) Miller
Port Alberni
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