The Cost of Freedom

The cost of Freedom
Today is remembrance day November 11th 2014 a day we who live in Canada remember those who fought and died for this country that we may be free.
The numbers are staggering. An estimated twenty million dead in “the war to end all wars” 1914-1981.
Another fifty-five million estimated dead soldiers and civilian, including an estimated six million Jews and five million other men, women and children killed in the death camps, through forced labour and death marches in the second world war.
All of this before the second half of the twentieth century, a century that one report says has seen more death through war and armed insurrection than any previous century.
Someone has said to ring a bell once a second for each person killed in just the two world wars would take two point three years.
I don’t think anyone can comprehend the death of twenty million, or fifty-five million. The numbers are staggering.
Even fifty-nine thousand five hundred forty-four or forty-five thousand four hundred, the number of Canadian soldiers killed in the first and second world wars is virtually impossible to comprehend.
What we can comprehend however is the death of a single man, or in Canada’s case two men.
One Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, age 53, going about his business  in  Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, south of Montreal and the other Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, a reservist based out of Hamilton, Ontario, on duty at the National war memorial in Ottawa.
Two men, one with a young son, not threatening a soul murdered by evil cowards brainwashed by despots that were no better than Hitler and his henchmen.
Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo did not I’m sure sign up because being a soldier was an easy or safe job. They signed up to serve their country and if necessary give their life for their country. Which sadly they did.
These men however are more. In killing them, the terrorist have brought Canada together.
These men are the symbol of all those who have gone before them. Men who day and night stand on guard for this great nation of Canada willing to give their lives that we may live in peace.
I am not a Canadian but I am proud to live in Canada, a country that values freedom above all things.
A place where differences are celebrated. Where people are encouraged to engage in open dialogue with one’s neighbours.
A country that welcomes the world.
Such a place would not exist if it were not for men and women like Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and those who came before them.
Men and women who put themselves in harms way that Canadians and indeed all of us who live in Canada can have the freedoms we enjoy.
May God bless Canada and the men and women who stand on guard for her.