HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1998-02-04, Page 5A Final Thought
We tend to forget that happiness doesn't
come as a result of getting something we
don't have, but rather of recognizing and
appreciating what we do have.
— Frederick Keonig
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1998. PAGE 5.
Arthur Black
Alas, he was
Canadian
The birth of a world famous poem is an
exceedingly rare event. Not many of us get
to be in on such a thing, but Cyril L.C.
Allinson did. He was there on May 3, 1917
when one of the best known poems in the
English language was written.
"I, saw him (the poet) sitting on the
ambulance step, a pad on his knee," Allinson
later wrote. "He looked up as I approached
but continued to write. He wrote on for five
minutes more, then, as I handed him his mail,
he handed me his pad. The poem was almost
an exact description of the scene in front of
us both."
The 'he' was Lieutenant-Colonel John
McCrae of Guelph, Ontario. The poem -- the
most famous war (I'd argue 'anti-war') poem
in the world — was "In Flanders Fields".
If McCrae had been British he'd have been
knighted for that poem. Had he been
American, he'd have been transformed into a
demi-god, the subject of books and
Hollywood movies.
Alas, he was Canadian. And because of it,
all but forgotten. There is a tiny museum in
Vignettes of life
When you go to work in another country,
as I am doing, there are things that stand out,
but do not seem to come under any particular
heading. For this reason, I thought it would
be appropriate to write an article on a few
things of a general nature that have happened
to me.
I recently went to Vienna with some
friends, they for the frist time, I for the first
time since I worked there in 1956 handling
Hungarian refugees who were coming to
Canada after escaping from their homeland
during the uprising and the subsequent
invasion by the Soviet military.
We normally assume that, in crossing a
border, the only delay is when you enter the
other country. Not so in the Czech Republic!
When we arrived at the Austrian border,
we had to stop at the Czech side, give up our
passports and wait. The Czech officials
looked at each passport carefully and then at
us to see if we resembled the picture in the
passport. He then checked each of us on his
computer to see if there was anything
negative about us. Then, and only then, did
he let us proceed.
The Austilans, working on the logical
assumption that anybody good enough to
his old homestead in Guelph. Occasionally,
his name surfaces in a 30-second sound bite
during Remembrance Day celebrations, but
that's about it.
And last year the memory of John McCrae -
suffered the ultimate indignity — his war
medals were yut up for public auction, for
sale to the highest bidder.
Did the federal government rush in to stop
the travesty and save the medals? Nope.
Nary a peep from the Feds.
Did the public cry out "Foul!"? Afraid not.
In the end, the medals were saved by the
intervention of a single Canadian citizen.
By a man who hadn't even been born when
McCrae wrote his poem.
By a man who wasn't even born in Canada.
Arthur Lee was born in Canton, China in
1955. His family came to Canada when he
was 10 years old and settled in Sudbury,
Ontario. Lee worked in the Inco Mines to get
enough money to go to university. After
graduation he went into the manufacturing
business and prospered.
And somewhere in that process, Arthur
Lee became a Canadian with an intensity that
few of us will ever be able to claim.
Canadian enough to enter the public
bidding against professional foreign
collectors bent on buying the McCrae medals
By Raymond Canon
escape the clutches of the Czechs was good
enough to enter Austria, let us in with hardly
a glance.
It all reminded me of the time I crossed
over from the Soviet Union to Finland. The
Russians were much more meticulous than
the Finns.
Perhaps the current Czech action is a carry-
over from the days of the Cold War.
Another different thing happened. The
Czechs have relatively low salaries, and
Vienna was too expensive for an overnight
stay. Therefore, we commuted to Vienna (70
km. away) and I must confess that it made s
ense. A room on the Czech side of the border
cost $20 compared with $70 in Vienna.
Furthermore, gas is much cheaper in the
Czech Republic.
I also got to visit a Czech bar that could
have been right out of a Hollywood movie.
But that is another story.
When you work in a country whose
language you do not know but are struggling
to learn, every little victory is a morale
booster. The other day I was on one of my
numerous walks when two little girls about
nine or 10 came up to me and said, "Kolic je
hodim?"
To my surprise I understood what they had
said — they were asking the time. I let them
look at my watch, they thanked me and went
on their way. It made my day.
The worst thing about Czech drivers in this
city is that they do not stop for pedestrians at
and spiriting them out of the country.
Canadian enough to lay out $400,000 of his
own money buying the medals.
Did he do it for the glory? No. Arthur Lee
is a shy Canadian.
"It's been a little bit too much" he says.
"My wife and I, we're really not into this
public life, and she is getting really rather
upset..."
Did he do it for profit? Hardly. Arthur Lee
immediately donated the McCrae mementos
back to Canada. No charge.
"It was more or less desperation, to make
sure the medals stayed in Canada, rather than
taking a chance at their being lost," explained
Lee. "I just felt I was doing my duty as a
Canadian....nothing more than that, really."
A lot 'more than that', actually.
Arthur Lee's gesture calls to mind perhaps
the most famous line of John McCrae's
immortal poem. I'm referring to the line that
goes
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high
We Canadians have fumbled the torch a
couple of times in the past few years. Once
or twice it's almost gone out.
We can thank our lucky stars there are still
Canadians like Arthur Lee around to show
the rest of us how a torch ought to be held.
crosswalks. At least, most of them don't.
have finally been provided with a car when
need it and one of my first goals was to stop
at every crosswalk when there was a
pedestrian and let him cross, regardless of
how many cars there were behind me. You
should see the smiles on some of the
pedestrians' faces!
When the police get around to enforcing
the law, some Czech drivers will remember
that it was a car with a Canadian sticker on it
that set an example for them.
Somebody once remarked that with me life
never seemed to be dull. I should hope not! I
just wouldn't let it.
Looking back
SEVEN YEARS AGO
FEB. 6, 1991
Local skaters Peter MacDonald and Kevin
Wheeler, and their partners competed at the
Nationals.
Thieves broke into McDonald's in
Brussels.
Over 150 took part in Walton's poker rally.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
The coward's way
Everything nice? Au contrairei
Having been one, socialized with them
and raised two, I know there are occasions
when young girls are more likely to be
everything viscious, cruel and spiteful. They
find the vulnerability of their victim and
strike at it again and again.
Frighteningly, however, this already dark
side seems to be turning violent. While most
young offenders are still male, the number of
crimes being committed by young females is
important to note. Sugar and spice it seems
has soured. The most recent case was that of
Jackie Visee, a 14-year-old Waterloo girl
who was beaten and tormented by at least
one 17-year-old, while others stood by and
allowed it to happen. The reason no one
helped they said was because they feared
retribution.
A 13-year-old London girl stabbed a
young boy for no apparent reason other than
he was smaller than her. A group of female
teens are charged with the death of a
runaway in B.C. Two teens in Saskatchewan
have killed a women, and in Alberta an . 18-
year-old killed her roomate.
And everywhere, you hear people asking,
"What is going on?" A female mean streak is
not something new. If you don't believe me
or don't understand what I mean then
consider yourself lucky. You have not, like
the one mother who spoke with me, felt the
frustration in reading the painfully cruel
letter sent to her daughter by a 15-year-old
classmate. Nor do you know what it means
to be ostracised by your peers over
malevolent rumours. You have not seen the
tears of a young teen who walks bravely
down the hall, while several girls slander
and curse at her, day after day, because they
don't like the way she looks.
Nor have you felt the intimidation of being
cornered in a school washroom by a group
of these evil princesses. Nor known the
absolute powerlessness of a concerned
parent. The frustration of Visee's grandfather
was tangible in the newspaper accounts of
her ordeal.
And what is the motive. One prinicpal
attempting to discover why a teen was
compelled to pick on another girl was told,
"Because I don't like her." Why, she could
not answer. But she still slandered and
humiliated her at school, and had even called
her home in the middle of the night and
threatened her with physical violence.
( And just in case you're wondering, this is
a Huron County story.)
Experts have said that generally the
problem begins over jealousy, from feeling
threatened by someone because they dress
differently, because you don't like the way
.they look, walk, talk or act. It can start
because someone glances at someone else
the wrong way, or because she thinks her
boyfriend is interested in the other.
Girls today have the same insecurities we
did. They perceive a threat and what begins
as dislike reaches a boiling rage over time.
Perhaps it is this slow simmering that is at
the root of the problem. Perhaps young girls
need to be shown first that hatred for hatred's
sake is not valid. True power lies in facing
and overcoming problems at the offset not in
verbal or physical abuse. The latter are the
methods of cowards.
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