Poppies... don't they grow those in Afghanistan?

The only thing that I remembered this morning at 11:11 was a clip from a dream about myself falling asleep. Not that I slept in on Remembrance Day on purpose, but it just so happened that a good buddy of mine was in town from BC and we had to celebrate with a few brews.

I think it's funny how quickly people can forget why we have a remembrance day in the first place. To me, it represents a day that we should reflect on why all wars should be avoided, not just that single day of the year that we pay our respects to the soldiers of the past.

But you don't see many people in the streets protesting our involvement in Afghanistan. Canada's reputation as global peacekeepers has been transformed to American lapdog, and we all seem content enough to accept that. We've got no business in a "war" that is designed to be self perpetuating. All it does is create an atmosphere with more killing and more occupation and oppression.

And isn't that what we're supposed to remember today? The vets don't show up to parades in their wheelchairs to sing the praises of current soldiers - they're there to remind us that there ought not to be any more soldiers in the world. They remind us of all the terrible things they had to live through in order to preserve our lives and freedoms, in hopes of persuading our generations to make the world a better place. I'm sure they wish that the war they fought in was the last one the world would ever see. And it's all too easy to dismiss their ideals because we've never been in their shoes.