On a Serious Note...

Before I write this newest verbosity down, I'd like to thank Steve for deciding to set his bar higher, but also wanting to let him know that what he's doing now is still vastly more entertaining than many other things. But on that note, I was inspired by recent news to go off on a topic of actual importance above my favourite sports or pop culture...

Apparently our fearless new leader, Herr Harper as we've taken to calling him, has decided to echo a policy of the American government dating back to the Vietnam War and earlier. This is, of course, forbidding Media from showing coffins of Canadian soldiers being taken off of airplanes as their remains are brought home for burial (if they're lucky enough to have their bodies recovered). I'm going to come out and say that I completely disagree with this, and I find it offensive. Before I launch into why, I want to admit that yes, some have said its respectful to the families, but I would counter by saying its disrespectful to the dead. In fact, the majority of families of servicemen/women who have been killed overseas in the Afghan/Iraq spheres, have said that they are not offended by the coffins being shown coming off planes.

My big problem with this criminally moronic idea, is that, being a student of history (as one of my readers is as well) it reminds me far too much of the LBJ/Nixon era when the bodies were just being unloaded off of the transport planes non-stop. But if the American public were not seeing this, then the War campaign could be pushed harder and harder, and more and more young lives could be sent off to be wasted. So perhaps Mr. Harper thinks that if we don't see the coffins being unloaded out of the back of Hercules planes, that we won't notice...out of sight out of mind.

Are we supposed to simply think 'oh well I don't see any dead Canadian soldiers being flown home, so I guess there aren't any, and none are dying'? Does he think we are that stupid? I honestly hope not, or at least that he doesn't think that the majority of us are at least. I think it is a dishonour to the memory of each and every soldier killed if they do NOT show us. We should see it, not because we want to, but because we NEED to see that even though we are no military power, far from it, that we still do have people dying because Mr. Harper (and his predecessors) have sent them away to do so. Soldiers are technically employees of Canada, and are doing their jobs, but it becomes far easier to let us be immune to the realities if the government starts to avert us from such truths.

I am not trying to say that if we don't see a coffin draped in a Maple Leaf carried out of the back of a plane that democracy is over. I'm not that naive or black and white about things. I just think it is a slippery slope. If you bear with me: for every person who only watches TV news in this country, if there are no longer images of such sad events, then perhaps the mind doesn't remain conscious of the fact that there are still armed conflicts going on all around. I don't think in this country its as important, but in the US, by trying to avert people from that, they are trying to keep up enrollments in the Armed Services. This I will also attribute to the average intelligence of an American not being as high as a Canadian.

I seem to be rambling and this is not a convincing paper, I know I wouldn't give myself good marks. But this is just a blog, so its mostly stream of consciousness and stuff that comes to me. Take it as it comes. If I can boil down my argument its like this: I think every Canadian solider killed in action or whatever it is called deserves the flags to be at half mast (I neglected to talk about that part of Harper's decisions but thats how it is) Canadian soldiers are, as I said earlier, Canadian employees, and what does it say about an employer who won't even give you the respect afforded normally to the dead? I also think that there is nothing wrong with showing coffins coming home, because it drives home many points: there ARE Canadians dying, War does still happen even for peacekeepers like us, We cannot become numb to the fact that those are all each individual lives snuffed out, when it seems like Mr Harper wants us to forget it, and move along. I think that is far more disrespectful than showing coffins coming home.

So thats my somewhat jumbled and wordy assesment of the topic.
The second prong of this conversation is the involvement of the Media in the equation...
I don't think that the media has the "right" to be there showing us all of these things, but I think they have an obligation to show the average person images and information.
I think that the media uproar about Harper's decisions may in fact, sadly, be more about their own loss of coverage than of any more noble caring. I would hope to be proven wrong, but I'm not that naive. I also think the media likes to toot its own horn and talk about how important they are in all facets of life, and I think they feel like the PM isn't playing the game with them, and they're irked about it. No matter what you or I think about the various military 'skirmishes' or the politics behind it, lets not lose sight that its not about the media, Harper, or even what I think, its about what we do every Nov 11th...REMEMBER. I just hope in the aftermath of all this, that Canadians don't lose sight of the fact that each one of those coffins represents another fellow Canadian who died trying to make the world a safer/better place.

As usual I welcome feedback/comments/criticisms, because otherwise its just a glorified Diary, and thats kinda sad.