YORKTON - It may seem like such a repetitive thing when each year at this time this space is dedicated to our need to mark Remembrance Day, but it remains such an important thing to do.
In fact, it is becoming more important these days unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
Remembrance Day should be a day we gather to remember the men and women who have given their lives to protect our freedoms through too many wars, and to say thanks to those who are protecting our lives today.
That should be what the day is about.
But, today we can’t ignore the day’s importance as a warning of what seems almost inevitably to be repeated.
Take a moment to watch any documentary on one of the two world wars and the death and destruction is terrible.
Now think about the ‘advancements’ in armaments which militaries have managed in the decades since, and another encompassing war might be one we don’t ever fully recover from.
Anybody with a modicum of common sense can tell that, but if we look around our world today, common sense seems in rather short supply.
Russia has invaded Ukraine and that country is being battered, its people killed or on the run as refugees as it defends against the invaders. The Ukraine people have proven determined defenders and Russian leader Vladimir Putin is threatening nuclear strikes.
How can any human being consider that after seeing photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans in 1945?
It’s a disturbing thought that nuclear bomb research and refinement even happened after what happened to those two Japanese cities, but it has.
And while Putin is currently the one threatening their use, he is not the only wild card out there.
North Korea is every bit as threatening in terms of turning to nuclear weapons in even the most minor of disputes.
It is the threat of war, war that could all too easily escalate to encompass more and more countries, that adds a new level to Remembrance Day.
It can be a day of reflection on how horrible war was and is, and how we need to do everything reasonably possible to never allow a third world war.
So Friday morning it is to be hoped the Flexihall at the Gallagher Centre is packed as we remember and reflect.
Crowds have usually been good, but there are thousands in the city and frankly each of those people should be gathering enmass to say thanks and think about how we keep our country and world safe.
