Remembrance Day 2024
It is once again Nov. 11 and we are gathered together to pay our respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedom from tyranny we enjoy in our land today.
We use the phrase "Lest We Forget" but what does that mean in today's world?
When I was a young boy "Remembrance Day" was the most celebrated day in my house and my community. My mother and father, my siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and most of the community would gather at the cenotaph at 11 am in our small town to pay our respects to the fallen. My parents and grandparents generation often had tears running down their faces remembering those who did not return. The men and women who had participated in the fighting but managed to come home, often had collective guilt for leaving their comrades behind.
It was not a holiday but a day of mourning and reflection on the real cost of protecting the freedom that is the very foundation of our way of life. Most of the generations that participated in those calamitous events have now passed on, and their sacrifices, that lasted for them long after they came home, have faded from our collective memory.
My 20 year old father, his younger brother and two of my future uncles all answered the call to arms and saw active duty in North Africa and N.W. Europe. They were gone from home for 5 years and although they were not physically damaged, their young souls never left those battle grounds. I witnessed their silent stoic struggles with what they had lived through but also with what they had participated in and how they tried to kill their pain. They were all dead within 30 years of coming home.
Although some of us still attend the events, "Remembrance Day" has now become a Stat Holiday in most places and will probably be rolled into a long weekend at some point in time and become void of meaning. I have spent most of my life benefiting from the deeds of those who came before me, who stood up and sacrificed their lives and their time to make the world a safer place for future generations to live in. I thought that I had inherited this land, this culture, and this civilization from them, but in fact they had entrusted it to me to safeguard the freedom that their sacrifices have endowed on me.
My duty to them is to pass down the importance of our history, to keep alive as best I can their accomplishments and their gift of our freedom by keeping November 11 a sacred day of remembrance for eternity, and to wholeheartedly commit to continue to preserve and fight for our freedom in the face of tyranny. "Lest We Forget"
John Martineau
August 1954 - November 2024
"I AM ALBERTAN"
Is it a statement, a declaration, a way of life, a matter of pride, a sense of belonging or does it embrace all of this and more?
For a few weeks I have been pondering what “I am Albertan” means and why it is resonating with so many of us. What I have discovered is a well worn path of amazing people who recognized the spirit of this land and chose to make Alberta their home and who have used their talents, ingenuity, dedication, determination, and generosity to create a unique culture that is the very soul of this province.
Our rich Alberta culture is forged by the unforgiving hostile natural environment that surrounds us. Its vastness has inspired us to dream large and provided us with endless opportunities. In order to survive in this rugged country we had to learn to help each other and to share what we had with our neighbors.
From its earliest beginnings to the present, Alberta invokes a sense of freedom and individualism that has attracted people to come from afar or to remain here, and to recognize that this is a place where we can achieve our hopes and our dreams. It is a place that is accepting of all peoples, that will extend a helping hand up, and where you are valued by what you contribute.
“I am Albertan!” belongs to all Albertans! It is our hope that it will become an interactive platform where we can all share our stories about what Alberta means to us. We hope that it will become a place to honor our past by exploring our rich and diverse history, a place to learn about Alberta’s major accomplishments and achievements and a place to explore the lives of the amazing people who have helped to create our unique Alberta identity. We hope that we will pay respect to those great people and their sacrifices by learning who they were and by understanding the impacts their lives had upon us.
We hope that "I am Albertan" will be a place where we can explore current issues facing Albertans both present and future without bias; viewed through the lens of “is this good for Alberta”.
And most importantly we hope that “I am Albertan” will give Albertans a sense of belonging and identity, a place to celebrate our spirit of freedom, and a place to proudly call home.
John Martineau October 2024