So there is a debate going on out there about whether I am allowed to turn on Christmas lights before Remembrance Day. I hear about this debate every year and I have never really cared.
Really, I could care less what you do with your Christmas lights. While I agree with you that they might look stupid with all the neighbors Halloween decorations, I don’t think Veterans are wondering the streets at night TP’ing houses with red and green lights up before November 11.
When newspapers say that “Canadians” don’t want decorations to be seen until November 12th, remember that they are talking about people who likely don’t care about veterans as much as how they appear to care about them… or they simply don’t understand. Go talk to a veteran and ask what they think about Christmas decorations.
While I think this is totally unnecessary, I love this story about a store in Manitoba!
My life is an open book so you can read about how much I love the commercialization of Christmas.
My good friend Kevin put up his lights this past weekend because it was 12C (that is 53F for my American friends). Our average temperature in November is closer to -4C or 25F so I totally applaud the man’s decision to get out there and attach those lights to his house in this gorgeous weather.
But then he tells someone on Facebook that he just hooked them up and that they wouldn’t be turned on until November 12th. Why? Do we keep our beautiful lights off to honor the dead? Do we keep them off to be mournful of the loss that so many Canadians have experienced in the name of defending freedom? What do my pretty lights have to do with my gratitude to our nation’s heroes?
What are you wearing?
Don’t just wear a poppy but buy some. I put a $10 bill in one of those plastic trays this week and grabbed 5 poppies so I could have one on each of my jackets and a couple in the vehicle in case I need one. Wearing the poppy is a nice way to show support to the veterans of your country but don’t be afraid to pay for it either. I have paid $5 for a single poppy because I needed it right at that moment. Typically I like to pay $1 or $2 each and i buy 20 during the first week or two of November. What have you paid?
What are you saying and thinking?
If you aren’t talking about veterans as heroes, why not? If you aren’t looking for ways to reach out to a veteran this week, maybe you should be? I work with a scout group in my home town and we go to a church service at the church that sponsors the group. None of us attend that church regularly but we show up to support them. This year I met a couple of men who fought in WW II and was touched by their stories. I think it is important for my children to meet these people and hear their stories.
Where will you be on Wednesday?
First off, I will be out at our Remembrance Day parade at 10:30am on Wednesday. Where will you be? I don’t want to hear anything about seeing what the weather is like. If a guy in a wheelchair who lost a leg in a war 75 years ago can show up, it is warm enough for me. I will be out there with our entire Scout group from age 5 to 25, you can suck it up princess. Grab your kids, put on your winter gear (or your rain coat if you live in Vancouver) and maybe bring some sunscreen if you live in Toronto, but get your lazy ass out to a parade to celebrate these amazing people and honor what they gave up for you and your children.
For you in St. Albert or Edmonton, get ready for one of the warmest Remembrance Day parades I have ever seen. It will be right around the freezing mark which takes away all excuses to not attend. It breaks my heart to see a parade with more veterans than spectators. These are soldiers risking their lives now and senior citizens who watched friends, comrades and brothers die on foreign soil, defending what you consider a God-given right. It was not in fact given from God, it was given by your forefathers and defended by the blood of these people in the parade.
Get off your ass and show these men and women that their sacrifices are appreciated and not falling on a populace of unappreciative… I will stop there because there might be children in the audience.
Let us talk about Mike McKay.
Mike is an inspiration to me. He takes his jr. High and Sr. High students out in a field where they play soldiers for a day.
They dig a trench and sleep in it. Of course they don’t get to sleep long becuase every 2 hours they have to wake up to stand on watch. Not what most youth consider glamorous by any means but that was what war was for millions of soldiers in WW I and WW II. Check out some articles about the small hamlet of Eaglesham and how these students have turned something so basic into an exciting learning opportunity they will never forget.
Get ready scouts… I am on the hunt for some land for next year…
I try to teach the kids that war isn’t glorious like video games and movies make it out to be, and I try to erase the idea that Remembrance Day is just a day off of school.
~ Mike McKay
What is your freedom worth?
These soldiers fought for the freedom that we have so that we are free to use common sense. I choose to use that common sense to ignore the PLH’s that jump on Facebook and rant about whether my Christmas lights are turned on before Remembrance Day. Those Psycho Liberal Housewives are free to rant all they want but they must also know that I am free to ignore them… or in my case, to write a blog telling them to shut the hell up.
These soldiers fought for the very freedom that we Canadians just used to elect the son of Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister who created the East West divide that separated out country. But that is another blog…
Even though my wife thinks my writing is going to get my family killed she needs to understand what it means that we live in a free country and that is free because my grandfather and millions of brave men and women like him have fought for that freedom and I refuse to have it tainted by Trudoh’s minions!
I will hopefully see you all at the parade Wednesday morning. As a scout leader and father of nine kidlets, I totally get someone not bringing young children to an outdoor service at -20C (-4F) but so long as veterans are showing up, my older boys and I will be there, shivering in the corner, showing our support for the heroes in our lives. I have wished many a November 11 morning though that they would have ended this war a few months earlier, something those of you at parades down South simply wouldn’t understand.
A2Z with ADHD 