Editor: Nov. 11, 2013 marks 68 years since the 1945 armistice.
Every year, there are more of the same platitudes, which are promptly forgotten the next day. Remembrance is important, and it is not my intent to challenge it. I have honoured Remembrance Day since I was a child in primary school. As veterans, we thought we had defeated the Nazi form of fascism.
How do I see our world this year? Our government is now following the authoritative instruction or requirement of a corporate financial oligarchic dictate. My dictionary of philosophy says that fascism is the open rule of big business and finance. Seems like it to me.
We need to ask the question — are our elected representatives really working in our interests or those of the corporations? Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims the government has a mandate. Nothing could be further from the truth. The about 30 per cent of voters who voted Conservative gave them a majority, not a mandate.
It’s a time of “make war to have peace.” It’s a time where the dictatorship of big business is replacing democracy. Unions are under attack by the state. Taxation is diminished for the super rich and increased for people with medium to low incomes.
Health care and medicare are being eroded by for-profit incursions, while governments turn a blind eye. You know all the rest — homelessness, poverty, cutbacks and more.
This Remembrance Day, let us remember the dead of past wars, but dedicate ourselves to peace and justice for all. No to war.
John Beeching,
Second World War veteran,
Vancouver