Forgotten.

I just got out of my kid's school Remembrance Day ceremonies.

I know it sounds like bitching, but it really wasn't all that inspiring. I recall the ceremonies of my youth, where there were veterans in the audience, death and sacrifice were center stage, and "In Flander's Fields" was a stately, solemn reading followed by a minute of silence that seemed to echo through eternity.

Today's ceremony was more about being nice to each other, and that war was a "bad thing". The statement was more about how we shouldn't say mean things to each other and that we should all just get along. They also spoke about not letting peer pressure force you to make fun of other kids just to "seem cool". (All valid points, but really - on Remembrance Day?)  Flander's Fields was rushed through, and more effort was spent on singing John Lennon's "Imagine" than anything else, and the moment of silence was fleeting.

I've always thought that Remembrance Day should be about honoring those who served and even laid down their lives so that we could have the world we live in, about doing what's right no matter the cost, and that knowing that nothing comes without sacrifice - not to be turned into a hug-fest about being nice and compromising so we all get along. Tell the guy who lost his legs to a land mine that he should have "just compromised".

I know I'm sounding like a rabid conservative, and maybe that's just the mustache talking, but something about it all just rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm meeting my Grandmother later - and I can't wait to tell her about the ceremony. My Grandfather served in the war and Nan herself survived the Blitz, so when I tell her they sang a John Lennon song, she'll lose it. I'm almost positive she's called him a "dirty hippy" in the past, so this should be good.

I just hope she doesn't use her Poppy pin to stab the next deadlock--wearing guy she sees as a form of retaliation.

I'll keep an eye out.

Later.