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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1971-11-11, Page 4PAGE 4 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS T1IURSDAI, NCVEMBER 11, 1971 r:' afir d Remembrance ... something for all There's something for everybody in Remembrance if one cares to look. Even the 60 percent of the population who have little recoilection of World War II can draw some- thing from the new concept of Remembrance. This year's Remembrance theme is: "If you can't Remember ... think!" If you can't remember war, think of the peace and what you are contributing as a citizen. Some, the next-of-kin of the war dead, will of course see other things in Remembrance. So will veterans who lost friends in war. And for a few medal clankers, it may even be an ego trip. But most of the war generation have a very personal feeling. about Remembrance, and with a bit of ap- plication the post-war generations can also find something very personal in this day. There is no day in the calendar upon which Canadians stop and assess their performance as citizens. Last year the Quebec crisis dramatized two facts: we could lose this coun- try by default and many of us are indifferent citizens. Citizenship and understanding is what it's all about. Some 114,000 young Canadians died to give us the oppor- tunity to develop both. Remembrance seems a logical time to look at ourselves and ask: "Are we blowing it?" "If you can't Remember . . . think!" Permissiveness! To be permissive is to allow or to permit something which reaches beyond the limits of established forms or boundaries. In the past forty years we have all heard about permissive attit- udes in the home, in the classroom and in the church. We have used the word to describe what has been happening in the gen- eral areas of public and private morality. Overall our era has been described as permissive, and life, being what it is, the older generations have been very quick to point the finger at those who are younger and accuse them of being so permissive as to be responsible for most of the break- down in modern society. But is this really true? Can we continually blame the younger generations for the world's ills? Or could it be that the young have become a scapegoat for the failures of those who have sat in the boardrooms of industry and education, in vestry and synod offices, in governmental offices, and who have become weary and taken the easiest way out when confronted with the problems of our world? After all, even in this enlightened day, there are not that many young people making the decisions which direct our lives. It would probably be much fairer to describe our whole culture as permissive and to suggest that the permissiveness is not the cause of our problems, but rather the result of older generations trying to retain established forms and boundaries in the face of new problems demanding reassessment of the established way. Perhaps one of the most interesting studies would be of the permissiveness of the older generations! How often do they cry out for standards which they no longer maintain themselves? How often do they demand of the young a spirit of discipline and self- sacrifice which they long ago tlirew over in the midst of the ravages of affluence and selfishness? ( - Huron Church News) ZURICH Citizens EWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 ve a MemLer: gPlen Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association %ID Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association '°s, ve' Assik &ercdptaan Rates: $4.00 per year in advance in Canada; lin United States and Foreign; single copies 10 cents. WHEN MEN WONT WILLINGLY TO WAR As the two great nars of this century move gtiadually out of memory and into the pages of history books, our annual Remembrance Day recurs with alarming rapid- ity, for the veteran. There was nothing "great" about either of those wars, except for their size. 'i et, the old sweats call their war the Great War, and the middle- aged sweats have to settle for the title World War I1. The name of the day has been changed from Armistice Day to Remembrance Day. A good change. But I'm glad they haven't changed the date. November llth is an ideal time to remember. It's usually cold, wet and gloomy. Even the skies seem to weep at the folly of man. It's difficult to conceive of hearing those hallowed cliches: "fallen comrades, " "In Flanders fields the poppies grow..." At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them..." "lest we forget..., " on a hot day in July. But I'm not being ttrdonic when I refer to hallovied cliches, They are clilhes, but they are also hallowed, and they mean a great deal to the men. -- and many wortten--whc gather once a year to rememb- er that the cream of danadian young men, in two getnerat- ions, was skimmed of by a brutal fate on farawa j fields. It's hard to believe! in these days of the burning cif draft cards, of draft dodging, that in those two great wp.rs, Can- adians went not onl ' willingly, but in most cases eagerly, to fight in a war 3, 000 miles away, against an unknown enemy, for hazy reasons. At least, with hindsight, the reasons were hazy. But at the time, they were crystal clear. The Kaiser was out to destroy the British Empire. Good enough. Hitler was out to stomp across the civilized world in jackboots. Clear. Let': stop the sods. We didn't fight to subdue anyone, as the Russians, Ger- Photography Children ® Portraits 0 Weddings COLOR or BLACK & WHITE HADDEN'S STUDIO GODERICH 118 St. David St. 524.0787 trans, Japs, Italians have done. We weren't out to conque new territories. We were out to prevent someone from sub- duing us, or conquering our territory. In both wars, there was a minority who "joined up" for less than heroic reasons: to get away frorn a nagging wife: to avoid the law; to escape a boring job, But in the first great war, Canadians literally flocked to the colours, swamp- ing recruiting offices. In that war, they showed a dash and elan and fortitude once in action, that made them respected throughout Europe, and especially among the enemy. And in the second, despite the disillusion of the depres- sion, depsite the cynicism of the Thirties --perhaps the most anti -war generation of this century --they did it again. And once again they proved themselves, beyond a doubt, as doughty warriors on land. sea and in the air. Personally, I didn't exactly flock to the colours. Both my brothers had jumped in early. That didn't bother me. I was a product of the cynical Thirties, a university student, and I laughed at them as they went through endless months of dull tririning, while the war in Europe was a comp- lete stalemate. But a time came. The Germans broke through. Civ- ilization, as we knew it, was in danger of being tramped into the mud by the jackboots. That was when thousands of us stopped sneering at the "phoney" war and took the oath. Looking back, I shake my head wryly as I remember how desperate we were to get killed, It was a traumatic exp- erience to be washed out of air -crew, where your chances of being killed were fairly good, and wind up washing dishes at manning pool, ,safe as a sausage. We knew what we were doing, in some instinctual way. We wanted to come to grips. That, s why I feel a , certain pity for the conscripts of the so-called free world, in these days . They are forced to go to war against an un- known enemy, for something they don't believe in, amidst an atmosphere of corruption and downright lies. To all veterans: don't rem- ember the blood and mud and sweat and brutality and fear. Just remember all the good times and the good friends. You'll never have them again. 0 Set damage in attack on area cemetery Damage has been estimated at $300 following an attack on the Fansville Cemetery by vandals last week. The cemetery is located on Highway 84, west of Hensall. Four tomb stones were smash- ed in the attack. Opp Constable Bob Whiteford also indicated that the vandals had apparently started to dig up one of the old graves in the cem- etery. A hole over three feet deep was found on the grave of a young mother and her child who died in the late 1800s. Business =end Professional Directory OPTOMETRISTS J. L. Longstaff OPTOMETRIST SEAFORTH MEDICAL CENTRE 527-1240 Tqesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat- urday a.m., Thursday evening CLINTON OFFICE IO Issac Street 482-701 Monday and Wednesday Call either office for appointment. Norman Martin OPTOMETRIST Office Hours: 9.12 A,M. — 1:30-6 P.M. Closed all day Wednesday Phone 235.2433 Exeter Robert F. Westlake Insurance "Specializing In General Insurance" Phone 236-4391 — Zurlsh Guaranteed Trust Certificates 1 year .. 6% 2 year - 62 3 year -. 741 Li year -. 72% 5 year - 7-% Jo W. ZURICH ERERPHO r..E 236-4346 AUCTIONEERS PERCY WRIGHT LICENSED AUCTIONEER Kippen, Ont. Auction Sale Service that is most efficient and courteous. CALL THE WRIGHT AUCTIONEER Telephone Hensel) (519)262-5515 1 FUNERAL DIRECTORS WESTLAKE Funeral Home AMBULANCE and PORTABLE OXYGEN SERVICE DIAL 236-4364 — ZURICH ACCOUNTANTS Roy N. Bentley PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT GODERICH P.O. Box 478 Dial 524-9521 INSURANCE For Safety .. . EVERY FARMER NEEDS Liability Insurance For Information About All Insurance — Call BERT KLOPP DIAL 236-4988 — ZURICH Representing CO-OPERATORS INSURANCE