My first Remembrance Day post
I shook hands with the vet selling poppies in my subway station last night, on my way home from work. I thanked him, and I'm sure he thought it was for the poppy, but it wasn't.
"You look to be around fightin' age" he said.
"Yeah, I'm in my mid-twenties." I replied
"So when the next one starts up, we know who to come and get first?" he asked, with a smile.
"No thanks. I'd rather not be anywhere near a war, thank you very much. That's why I'm glad you guys did all the hard work."
"Don't worry son, we're still here to make sure it doesn't happen." Then he pinned my poppy on my jacket, and turned to the next person in line.

Some people think that Remembrance Day is about glorifying the wars of the past and deifying the people who died fighting those wars, but that's not what the vets want. They want people to remember how pointless war is, its personal cost on humanity... one life at a time, and to stop it from happening again.
Regardless of where you stand on the justification of war and violence, I think anyone reading this would agree that peace is a preferred option to war. If so, please attend a memorial for Remembrance Day in person, or at least watch the CBC coverage from the Cenataph (National War Memorial) in Ottawa. You'll see what I mean.
Now back to our regularly scheduled sarcasm, irrevrant jokes, and potty humour.