BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following poem was sent in by Barrie resident Alastair MacLeod expressing his thoughts in the wake of Remembrance Day.
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POST REMEMBRANCE DAY THOUGHTS
Being Canadian, I consider myself eh-symptomatic.
Sorry…
It’s just that our national animal is a rodent,
Our national flower is a tree leaf
Our currency is called the ‘loonie’
Our Snowbirds aerobatics team flies jets
That are approaching 60 years old.
(I suppose that says a lot for our frugality)
All that gives us a singular sense of humour.
Some claim that anything north of the 49th parallel is a frozen wasteland
It’s no wonder others look upon us as having some sort of identity crisis.
Truly our ancestors and others more recently…
Yes, even some today…
have conducted themselves in a less than humanitarian manner.
Because of it, there is defilement, shame and dishonour
manifested in an unconscionable segment of our history
and continues to permeate our current consciousness.
It is an embarrassment and a humiliation that demands we take ownership
accompanied by acts of contrition, reconciliation and enduring commitment.
Yet… I stand proud of my country… despite its foibles and faults.
Proud in our diversity: of climate, landscape, traditions and cultures.
(Where else can you drive three hours to experience Arctic air in one direction or tropical breezes in the opposite direction?)
But I am proudest to acknowledge that I can savour all this
because of the Freedoms I cherish.
Freedoms granted, earned… passionately fought for; defended.
(Sometimes at the expense of those we have wronged.)
Though I am aware of our decidedly variegated past
I know that we will overcome it, learn from it and grow
ever stronger in unity and collective purpose…
Because we are Canadian.
(I’m just not so sure about the black flies and mosquitoes.)
Alastair MacLeod
Barrie
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