"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Sunday, 30 October 2011

I Do Not Forget

*******

A special invitation to Councillor Evelyn Buck

The Aurora Cultural Centre and the Aurora Historical Society
warmly invite you to the launch of
Faces of War
Fine Art Exhibition
and
Lest We Forget: War & Remembrance
Images and Artifacts from The Aurora Collection

****

I am the grand-daughter and daughter of two women who lost sons in the first and second world wars.

I know  horrifying details of  the deaths of James Diamond and Patrick Finnigan  at twenty-two and twenty one years old.

I have and will hold the memory of  my mother's and grandmother's grief, in my heart all the days of my life.

As they did

Every time I read or hear of another son or daughter killed in Afghanistan or wherever  they are sent,I  relive that grief.

I have five sons,two daughters.

And  conviction

War is not glorious. Neither is it victorious.

 Memorials  in  towns cities and villages remind us, with the names of  children who paid with an awful death, the  terrible price of war.

Memorials built after the First World War and the Second do not  celebrate war.

They remind us of  carnage, grief and loss.

History records.

Records do not legitimize the causes of war.

There is no nobility.

Only evil and stupidity.

********

Since starting  this blog, my opinion on war and its consequences have been  clear. I don't harp on it but followers cannot fail to  have understood where I come from on this topic.

 Since the  home of the Aurora museum was stolen out  from under us, culture centre staff have 
hosted  several  presentations.

The  Aurora Temperance movement has been highlighted.

  The Ontario Provincial Police have provided a glimpse into their history.

The militia  has had their turn.

Now the  Culture Centre and the Aurora Historical Society is offering, for our enjoyment, a lecture and presentation of  images and artifacts  of war.

I have received a special invitation to attend.

I will not.

I will not enter that building until the Aurora Museum is restored to its rightful place.

To engage the community with the history of the positive, progressive,confident,small settlement which laid the foundations and principles of a place to grow and prosper in this small corner of the world.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

WHACK !

Anonymous said...

Ah, and what will this 'not for profit' group charge
us for admission ?

Anonymous said...

Bravely and nobly stated.

Anonymous said...

OK. What am I missing here ? The Town owns the
building, the Town owns the historical collection,the Historical Society can display the artifacts and add
others after the inventory is completed. There is a
vacant, maybe not rented yet, art gallery sitting on
Wellington. Why do we need the Cultural Centre to
play piggy-back and get top billing, while they bill
the Town and attendees. Why do we need a third
always costly group shaving off the top of every event ?
What am I missing while they play their mind games ?
Oh, that's right. It's a Museum I'm missing.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they should warmly invite everyone to visit the not so warm WW1 Cenotaph and WW2 Alter of Sacrifice, if you want a glimmer of the cold and brutal loss to this community and our neighbors to the east and west of us, you need look no further , One thing is for sure, it cannot be found at any warm culture club,
Good for you Councilor , enough of the charades

Anonymous said...

"OK. What am I missing here ? ... the Town owns the historical collection"

That's what you're missing. The collection is the property of the Aurora Historical Society NOT the Town.

LivingInAurora.ca said...

Well said Evelyn!
The signs on the streets of Aurora continue to point to the Museum where the current Aurora Cultural Centre is. May be one day they will point in the right direction.
Anna :)