This morning's conversation reminded of a story in The Auroran a few weeks before Christmas. A dinner was held at the Legion to honour soldiers on active service.
Dignitaries were on hand to bask in the glow of heroism and make speeches commending their courage and commitment and debt owed by the community.
The smiling young faces of three uniformed soldiers in the front page photo would make any mother's heart melt.
They put the lie to the whole event. Told the dinner guests they were not heroes. They just heard from somebody they would be allowed to shoot guns and throw hand grenades if they joined.
So they did.
From the Swartzenegger video game generation that sounded exactly right.
I know a young man who went through the process. Came back from Afghanistan with a few thousand dollars and promise from the Government of Canada or representatives of a job opportunity
No job or opportunity for training materialized.
Little of the Afghanistan experience lends itself to civilian life.
Lesson learned. Don't trust your government.
You are preaching to the converted in me.
ReplyDeleteGovernments has a problem. They are happy to send young warriors ? off to fight their battles but they cannot seem to deal with the same individuals when they return home. Vietnam was the first time that the populace truly saw the disconnect. And that was largely due to media coverage.
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ReplyDeleteFor a relatively small town with a population under 60,000 we somehow manage to dish up all sorts of subject material, much of it pretty negative.
It's unfortunate that through this blog and other means of communication we seem incapable of suggesting and making positive contributions to the lives of all those who dwell in Aurora.
I know that bad news sells better, as do disaster stories, the stuff of newspaper headlines.
But just imagine for a moment a nice story, one about children and lost puppies that somehow find their way home.
We need much more of these and far less of the other kind. My mind is beginning to get a permanent warp when all it wants is to contemplate a straight line.
Never have trusted and never will. One of my Grandfathers had been in 2 wars, the other in one war. My parents lived through the 2nd world war and that's what they all told me.
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ReplyDeleteIt may be simplistic but I believe your local problems would cease if our mayor learned to communicate with residents during his term so that all these speed-bumps never developed in the fist place. Having his head of staff act as a point man is simply not working.