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The Lucknow Sentinel, 2013-11-06, Page 44 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, November 6, 2013 www.lucknowsentinel.com The Lucknow Sentinel VOLUME 137 - ISSUE 44 PUBLISHED WEEKLY P.O. Box 400, 619 Campbell Street Lucknow Ontario NOG 2H0 phone: 519-528-2822 fax: 519-528-3529 www.lucknowsentinel.com SUN MEDIA A Quebecor Media Company MARIE DAVID Publisher marie.david@sunmedia.ca JILLIAN UNDERWOOD Sales representative jillian.underwood@sunmedia.ca MARILYN MILTENBURG office administrator lucknow.sentinel@sunmedia.ca Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO SENTINEL CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT P.O. Box 400 Lucknow ON NOG 2H0 For any non -deliveries or delivery concerns: phone: 519-528-2822 e-mail: Iucknow.sentinel©sunmedia.ca Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All advertising and editorial deadlines: Friday 2 p.m. Changes of address, orders for subscriptions, and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The Lucknow Sentinel at the address indicated here. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates. The Sentinel is available on microfilm at: GODERICH LIBRARY, (from 1875) 52 Montreal Street Goderich ON N7A 1 M3 Goderichlibrary@huroncounty.ca KINCARDINE LIBRARY, (from 1875 to 1900 & 1935 to 1959) 727 Queen Street Kincardine ON N2Z 1Z9 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada pcna Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association Remembrance Day is losing context each generation How is Remembrance Day being conveyed to the youngest of our society, our teenagers, or even our young adults in this tech -savvy era? It's not. It's fading like the hun- dreds of Second World War and Korean War veterans we lose to the sands of time every week almost. And it's a travesty. It has been said many, many times that those who don't heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. As I was preparing old news clippings from the Second World War, I'm always fascinated to read and see how different a world it was. I look back to what was my grandfather's time, with my dad being born in the midst of the war and just a toddler when it ended. But for many people my age or younger, there is no connection. Or not one that was recorded by their family to be passed on. And with that, we are left at the mercy of today's mass media and its representation of Remem- brance Day. It's typically one of sombre music playing, talk of heroes and sacrifice and almost a surreal tone to it that doesn't resonate with today's society because we, and our parents, have never experienced such a dark time in our nation's history. Unless people actively seek out our WWII recorded histories, through books, or docu- mentaries, we're left to today's movies, video games and imagery composed by many peo- ple who in most cases can't relate, or retell the stories in a way that isn't over -dramatized. And because of that, the stories of the Great War and Second World War are falling towards the direction of myth and legend, as our soci- ety twists our history into a caricature of its actual self. And with so few veterans left to dis- pute these productions, let alone have the energy to do so, young people rarely see the My though Troy P Editor, Luck human face of what happened to our small communities across Can- ada as a result of these international conflicts. And these stories are the most important, as these were local people, lost in foreign nations, never to return home. Families were torn apart, many of the youngest and brightest lost to a conflict to end the tyranni- cal Axis of Germany, Italy and Japan. The image of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime has been warped over the years, with both movies and video games distorting the insanity he wrought on his nation, creating a political stain to last for generations in the wake of the millions he ordered killed. Hitler's rumoured interest in the occult has been inflated to create 'entertainment' that contains everything from Nazi super soldiers, robotic dogs and things like demonic connections, zombie soldiers and other forms of fantasy entertainment so far removed from reality one would hope it could never be taken seriously. But with the failure of schools to properly convey the importance of how the First and Second World War shaped our modern bor- ders, these fantastic pieces of fictitious enter- tainment are often young people's first expo- sure to this era. And unless they make a conscious effort to learn more, the limited amount of world history teenagers do learn in high school take its toll on perpetuating a soci- ety ignorant to our history, in favour of a divine knowledge of the fictitious world of entertain- ment provided by our modern media. In countries like India, parts of Asia, and South America, he's looked upon as some kind of powerful hero, as his war crimes are glazed over or not taught at all as part of world history in some cases. In cases like this, where his maniacal concepts for ruling, is on things atterson now Sentinel ethnic cleansing and purification circulate in some kind of positive light, it's a prime exam- ple of an environment where someone could build a political agenda in his image. And if someone with the right time, charisma, polit- ical motivations and image could spring- board to power in a similar manner, it could lead to death, destruction and strife in other parts of the world. We see it on the news and although it's not nearly on the grand scale of these past wars, we do see there is no short- age of people hungry for power, willing to kill and sacrifice followers to achieve their agenda and build power. Newspapers like The Kincardine News and Lucknow Sentinel were the media used to document the loss, strife and triumphs of our local areas during this time. And our back issues are the historical record of this, dem- onstrating the staying -power of print. In Canada, our society has the choice to ignore this history, ignore the news and live in a world where the hardships our grand- parents lived are far removed from their life of luxury, fine foods, entertainment and vacations. Why? Because the stories are sad, scary and disturbing. And as we become more and more dis- jointed from our military history and the hor- rors we experienced, our society becomes weaker and less united. Our society lives to 'play' now, not advance a nation on the world stage. That's left to a select few who control the political world. Remembrance Day is a sombre time, but it'll be even more so as generations choose not to learn about how it shaped us as a nation. We enjoy the comforts, technology and way of life because of the sacrifices made decades ago. And we are letting our young people `forget' or in most cases, ignore what made us the nation we are. Hence, Lest We Forget. Initiatives in throne speech could save Conservatives I get it. The throne speech is so mid-Octo- ber. It's dead and buried. Now we're glued to As The Senate Turns My Stomach. But could the throne speech come back from the dead like some kind of totally scary zombie, eating the brains of opposition MPs? Don't answer that question too quickly. Even critics acknowledge that the Canada - Europe trade agreement is an extraordinary accomplishment, but the rest of the throne speech is made up of gimmicks, or so they say. None of it will change the channel away from the months -long car crash that is the Senate. Not even the part of the throne speech that would allow people to buy only the chan- nels they want to watch. Oh dear, it's double trouble — a lame throne speech and a few senators filling their boots. It looks like Justin Trudeau will be the next prime minister, unless it's Tom Mulcair. Even Liz May has a better shot at living in a solar -panelled 24 Sussex Dr. than Stephen Harper has of going past 2015. I'm not so sure. It depends on a number of things. For instance, it depends on whether the PM is allowed to gas the Senate, perhaps after a referendum. Now that would be a game -changer and a channel changer. Head- line: Harper abolishes Senate — Chamber to be used to play floor hockey. (The sound of wild cheering). Sadly, that's unlikely to happen (I mean the part about the Senate being abolished). But he may be able to restrict senators' terms and maybe their duties, which would be popular. But is there anything in the throne speech that could cause the public to say the Con- servatives deserve to form another government? Well, running a balanced budget will be a major victory, though not really a throne speech initiative. Still, another commitment will be fulfilled. But what about the balanced budget act? Is that another gimmick? Not if properly structured. It could stipulate things like cutting the sal- aries of MPs and senators if the government runs a deficit. That would put some teeth in it. The throne speech also talked of cutting taxes. They had previously committed to income splitting once the budget is balanced. That would be hugely popular with most Conservative -leaning voters. They could even go beyond that. What if their balanced budget act stipulated that sur- pluses had to be divided between debt repay- ment, reducing taxes, modest spending increases and a chunk for a rainy day fund? They could call the fund the non-renewa- ble resources trust. Every year a percentage of federal surpluses would help build the fund so over time it produces an annuity to fund important government services. It would also remind Canadians that resource develop- ment is responsible for a great deal of our prosperity. A balanced budget act could remind voters that the Conservatives still see sound fiscal management and the economy as their top priority Sure, a few senators have expensed them- selves into the history books and deeply hurt the Conservatives, but there is a path forward. Following through on throne speech and other commitments will matter a lot. They should get on with it. — Monte Solberg QMIAgency