Remember ( short documentary film and commentary)

I am quite sorry for the long delay in posting anything new, but it's been a long month of extra hours of work, which should be at an end now. I trust I will have enough time in my life to come back here and post on a more regular schedule.

Today I would like to talk to you about the importance of Remembrance Day. It's been sixty years since the end of WW2, and we still have many veterans with us.

The link above is a short film I did, to honour those that served - and that fell. It's just a simple collection of images from the Internet, with some music added.
( You will have to pardon the typo on "tyranny" at the end - that will be fixed shortly.)

That generation showed the power of democracy in action. Men and women all over the world came together, forgot their petty differences, and fought the greatest evil in modern times - in the name of freedom and democracy.

Men, women, and even children played their part. People in the Occupied countries risked their lives helping to overthrow their oppressors. I once knew a woman in Montreal whose mother was Dutch. She was a child in WW2, and was part of the Resistance. One day she was told to get on her bike and pedal to a Resistance hideout.

She did, and arrived just in time to see Germans taking the men inside out. She pedaled by slowly, and helplessly. Everyone knew the fate of those captured men.

The men that served in that war went up against a very strong foe. One that had spent years fortifying Europe against just such an invasion. The landings on D-Day proved costly, but effective.

With the combined might of the rest of the world against it, not even the Germans could hold back the tide. The surprising thing about that war is the fact that no hatred was really directed against the peoples of either Germany or Japan - just against those responsible for the horror.

Given the facts, that is another demonstration of how just that battle was. We fought that evil with everything we had, conquered and destroyed it - and then helped those nations to rebuild, and then allowed them to become our allies.

Next Friday is November 11th, the time to take a few minutes to think back to the accomplishment of our combined nations armed forces. Out of your busy day, a few minutes of silent tribute and thanks won't be too much to ask.

If you see are lucky enough to meet a veteran of that war, go and shake his hand. They won't be around for much longer, and once they are all gone - that opportunity will be lost forever.