COLLINS: Veterans who gave their lives would be devastated today
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THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES in the pursuit of freedom must be wondering what has happened to the people they died for.
When John McRae wrote “In Flanders Fields” during World War I, he talked about “throwing the torch” to those still living. He wrote, “Be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.” McRae would be devastated if he looked down from his lofty perch and saw what has happened to us.
I guess in some sense, we are free. Free to go out and kill innocent women and children, as is the case right now in Israel and Palestine, free to march against our fellow citizens, free to conduct air strikes killing thousands, free to partake in genocide in Africa, to take a nation’s culture away from them, subjecting them to atrocities the likes of which are rarely seen, free to wander into schools, opening fire on innocents, free to hold people hostage, free to exhort mobs to break into the seat of government in an insurrection designed to take down a duly-elected government.
Free even to allow our first responders, who we constantly praise for their efforts, to become wrapped up in bullying, harassment, abuse of Indigenous people, the homeless and other marginalized people. And so on.
