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Now, in my previous two articles, they simply were not about being serious. Remembrance Day is simply about that, and giving the respects to those who have put themselves on the line for others. It is not about just one country, one nation, one city, or state. This is not about one continent, or one hemisphere. This is not about one battle, one fight, or one war. This is about a history war that has happened, and how brutal it is.

It is about the ultimate sacrifice one can do for their opinions, their rights, their interests, whether it might be for their friend, their spouse, their child, their family, or their nation. It is not only about the ‘Good' side of the battle, but also the people they are battling. When either side loses a life, a side loses a son, or daughter. It loses someone who was once loved, and has died in a war they may not have wanted to be in, but was there anyway. It is not about just the soldiers, but also the civilians. It is about the children, whose nation was occupied, and died as a side-affect, by bullet, or starvation from a roadblock.

Now everyone has a different view on the world, because we have all lived different lives. Each of our eyes are different, and because of that, we cannot see every one of the angles around a war. As a country going into war, a soldier tries to create a moral vacuum to allow themselves to kill another person, and try and not feel guilty about it. That person could have had a wife, daughter, husband, and a whole different life. These people, who were not about to create one, and have suffered long after the war had ended, with that thought on their mind, and have ended their life so they do not need to feel guilt anymore, we need to remember them.

We all have seen movies, which depict war. We have all seen our share of Band Of Brothers, Black Hawk Down, Thin Red Line, or Platoon, but there is a difference between looking at something through a picture frame, and actually being the on the other side of it. It is about having the courage to actually act in the face of danger, rather than having the backbone of an amoeba. It is having the respect for everyone that has lived, and died in a war, across time. While it might be hard for some of us to relate to the Holocaust, World War One, World War Two, or Vietnam, because those were simply not our time, it might be best for us to gain physical strength the sacrifices of people on both sides, because they will not see another sun rise, or another summer kiss.

I really do not want to come off preaching anything to the others here, but this is what the day means to me. To others, perhaps students, it means a day off from school. It could mean time and a half to a few. That was not the idea of the holiday though, but rather that the people that are gone because of it, no longer have a choice of viewing the ways that the others do.

Now below is a poem I wrote three or so years ago. It is not a good one, but it embodies what I feel.

Remember Me

Who are we to be?
I am just a soldier as you can see
I trampled the ground for my country
Well, not just for them, but my family
I walk the long trenches and beside my fallen friends
Their lives and many more now meet their ends
Bodies litter the ground like a train wreck
To my right, a head, severed from its neck
It gives me a bloody toothless grin.
For this reason we must win
We should not forget this day
For in this war, we have lots to pay
Like our innocence, our hopes and dreams
This place so tragic, my heart screams
My wishes go out to my fallen lads,
Of their girls, moms and dads
They will never see them again
That is their thought, as the blood starts to drain
The gruelling harshness of their pain
And now they lay down slain
A bullet goes wide and hits my hand
It shatters like a cloud of sand
I bring my hand up to my chest
Up to my heart, up to my breast
I drop to the ground, and now do kneel
A torn stump now it does reveal
Then a fatal shot through my brow
Into my head, the bullet did plough
My play is over and it's time to bow
I try to remember just why or how
Oh yes, I am a soldier as you can see
Who are we to be?
My spirit starts to flee
Please do one thing… remember me.

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