Tag Archives: Second World War
Remembering in 2023
I don’t remember when Remembrance Day (Veterans day in the US) first seeped into my consciousness. Probably around the time I started school, which makes it more than 60 years ago. My grandfather, I knew, had been a soldier, as had some of the other men from the church my family attended. They were veterans […]
Can’t Say It Now
Politicians today are subject to far more constraints than those of previous generations. People are quick to take offense, and God help you if you say something that doesn’t flow with the prevailing winds of society. It wasn’t always so though, as I was reminded on a visit to France in 2014. The words jumped […]
A D-Day Anniversay
Today is the 79th anniversary of the Allied invasion of France, the first step in liberating occupied Europe from Nazi domination. I thought it might be appropriate to repeat this post from 2014. They knew it was coming. Not the exact date or time, but there was a sense of inevitability. One day they would […]
The Costs of War
Time to take a look back with a post from this date in 2015. I figure you either haven’t read it becasue you weren’t a subscriber back then, or have forgotten it. When we toured the First World War battlefields in the Ypres area of Belgium last summer, the enormity of the human toll was […]
Government Lies
At some point this year I expect we will be discussing the nature of government messaging and its effect on our society and on us as individuals. Perhaps to foreshadow that, here’s a post from January 2015. In our post-modern world Truth seems to have become a relative where it once was an absolute. Perhaps […]
The Long Wait
Today is the 78th anniversary of D-Day, the start of the battle to retake Europe from the Nazis. It seems appropriate to revisit one of my first posts, written at the site and posted in 2014. Today is also, barring unforseen circumstances, the last day of my trip I am looking forward to being back […]
Some Thoughts On War
The destruction in Ukraine contnues to be at the forefront of many people’s minds. Somehow it seems less rmote than the war in Syria did a decade ago. Perhaps that is becasue there are so many Canadians of Ukrainian background who have been asking for and offering help to their ancestral homeland. Today’s thoughts were […]
Different Time, Different Place
I keep telling myself that stretching my mind is good for me. Which explains why I read Until Leaves Fall in Paris when it was offered to me for review. I’m not the target audience for romance novels. I think it has something to do with my gender. It isn’t that I am not a […]
A Dwindling Generation
There are 30,000 of them left. Ten years from now there may be 5,000. In twenty years time, none. Canada’s Second Word War veterans are dwindling as age catches up with them. The European portion of the war ended 75 years ago today. It is a milestone anniversary, but there aren’t the big public celebrations […]
Voice of Tolerance
Sometimes there are little surprises. Ties to history you didn’t realize were there. I was walking along the main street of my wife’s ancestral home town, Lippstadt, in northern Germany. It was there I cam across this bust. I recognized the name, Martin Niemöller. I hadn’t realized he was from Lippstadt. Niemöller was a pastor […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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