And those countless memorials conrain how many recently killed people?
And as for your command “Yes Sir”- seeing you are a veteran you have every right to make those decisions for us.
As a Canadian, I am proud of the way we honor our soldiers. I am proud of the way our Prime Minister attends or sends a rep for every funeral. I am glad that we Canadians make a big deal out of each and every death. Our soldiers deserve it. Their families deserve it.
And no offense to you Americans that understand that, but the rest of you that can’t be bothered to give up a lousy 10 minutes of your time can just, well you are really just not worth the effort to even cuss you out.
Oh please. My point was that I made the sacrifice by putting myself in harm’s way (did you?) and I don’t think parading my dead body on a busy street in rush hour traffic is the way I’d like to come home.
Not to take sides or get drawn into this debate, but ANZAC Day is a public holiday and the parades are organised well in advance, everyone knows they’re going to happen, and there’s usually quite a bit of community involvement in them; I don’t think they’re quite the same as the situation outlined in the OP.
I do think it’s a nice that Canada has such great respect for their War Dead, too.
It saddens me to think that most people didn’t give a fuck about them when they were alive.
CrazyCatLady needs to burn in the lowest pits of Hell for imagining for one minute that the soldiers who died should not shut down traffic. They didn’t die in vain, they died in Afghanistan, meaning the most appropriate possible way to honor them is to link their deaths to as many headaches as possible for everyone concerned. CrazyCatLady, don’t you know that every soldier’s dying wish is to mildly annoy as many people as possible? When Montgomery died, queues across the Empire took an extra jog five paces to the left then back five paces to the right, simply because it would give people enough time to reflect on what a minor annoyance, what a mild pain in the ass, war really is.
I don’t know… we live, unfortunately, in a world where people can suffer serious consequences for being ten minutes late to things.
-FrL-
Pissing random people off is no way to honor the dead.
Ayup. Above someone said “I’d bet you’d think differently if the soldier were your own friend or close relative.” In fact, I wouldn’t think differently–if the solder were my own brother or sister or parent or wife, there’s no way I’d consent to a motorcade during rush hour. Scheduling it for rush hour, making the deceased the cause of trouble for countless others, would be disrespectful to the deceased.
-FrL-
I think it was a disrespectful decision to send a memorial procession through rush hour on a main street.
During rush hour, people are stressed, unable to move freely and in a hurry. Precisely the opposite of what you want for these fallen troops.
The event should have been discreetly advertised and held at a convenient time so people could pay their respects in a dignified way.
If (as Mahna Mahna tells us) 'three police cars come whipping up with their lights flashing, block off traffic, and a cop jumps out yelling at you to stay off the street, you might just want to listen anyway… no? ', I assume some crime is taking place and I would get nervous about my safety and how I was going to get to work. I certainly don’t expect to be quietly mourning.
Look, like a lot of people my age, my dad fought in 'Nam. And my grandfathers in WWII and Korea, respectively. My brother was a Guardsman for a decade when Guard units were being deployed to deal with genocides in various shitholes around the world. (My uncle served for 15 years, but fortunately left for the private sector before Gulf War I broke out.) At any given time, it could have been any one of them. And I would still think trying to drag their carcasses through rush hour traffic rather than leaving an hour later is the kind of nonsensical plan only a bureaucrat would make.
And the military men in my family would be the first (and loudest) ones screaming about what a stupid clusterfuck of a decision it was.
(Of course, they’d also be criticizing the route taken, because there’s a shortcut right across here that would be so much easier and faster. And where the hell did this guy learn to drive, anyway? And…but that’s a whole different thread.)
If this makes us bad people who aren’t fit to be pissed on by real patriots like the rest of you, I reckon we can live with that.
For those people who didn’t want to wait - did they just move to Toronto or something? Just hop into the nearest PATH entrance and go wherever the fuck you want.
These reactions to CCL are really overblown. Just some recreational outrage going on in this thread?
Those kids died so that the rest of their country’s biggest worry would be “am I late?”
Looks like their sacrifice was not in vain. :rolleyes:
ZOMG! Teh warz made me late for work! Somebody call those Geneva Convention ppl!!!twenty-five!!!
I guess war really IS hell. :rolleyes:
mske, there’s no PATH on that stretch of Bloor St. The options were to walk a few minutes west to Yonge where there are subway entrances on three of four corners, or be a giant gaping asshole and cross over to the Sherbourne subway.
FWIW, the motorcade travels on highway for the most part, and only emerges into city streets for the last few km of its journey. Minimal inconvenience to us civilians. The papers always make a mention when soldiers are being repatriated that day (albeit in a small article, since it’s hardly front-page worthy), but they can’t specify the exact times they’ll be shutting down intersections since it all depends on how quickly the motorcade is able to travel the distance from Trenton to Toronto once the flight has landed.
And once they’re moving, they don’t stop till they get to their destination… that’s the rules. They died in service to their country, and the military recognises that by bring them home with the full pomp and circumstance they deserve.
So lest we civilians get disturbed by the ugliness of the war, we should make the motorcade pass through in the dead of night? Seriously? Because rush hour here runs from 4pm-7pm… that’s a loooong span.
(Bolding mine). Wtf??!!?! That’s probably the most ludicrous statement I’ve read in a long time. Keep your head in the sand. We all know the benefits of an uninformed populace. :rolleyes:
I fail to see how it’s solely the “government’s war” when it’s being fought by the country’s young men and women.
I agree with the OP 100% by the way. Complete asshattery. I get riled up when people don’t stop for funeral processions, but those of soldiers?? Disgusting.
Agreed. The vibe I’m picking up is not so much respect for the dead as a chance to be self-righteous. “Fuck you, you’re going to hell you asshat!” is hardly respect for the dead.
And while it’s a great thing to pay respects, the reality that some people simply can’t spare those ten minutes. Does a government have a right to force people to pay their respects?
When I was younger, there was a situation a couple blocks from my house that involved a nutcase with a rifle, the SWAT team, helicopters… it was crazy. A local cop named Ervin Clemens (who was set to retire in about a year, if I remember right) was shot and killed before they could take the nutcase down. You should know that I knew Erv just as I knew, and was close with, most of the cops in the area.
They had a motorcade, too, with a squad from just about every state in the country, and the whole thing paraded through town behind the car that took Erv to the high school for his funeral.
More recently, a firefighter whose whole family I know dropped dead from a heart attack while out on a call. They ALSO had a motorcade, with fire trucks and squad cars, and the kids at the school across the street from the station got to go outside to watch it. I wasn’t around for that one but if I had had to get somewhere in that town, I would have thought the same thing I thought during Erv’s motorcade: “Wow, I wish I would have gotten through downtown before THAT clusterfuck.”
Imagine what I’d be thinking if I didn’t even know the person.
Oh crap, I almost forgot my “I’m more sensitive/patriotic than the rest of you” credentials: I know combat veterans in my personal life (five of whom are buried at Fort Snelling) and I work with combat veterans (not specifically, but there are some there like the guy who had a complete meltdown on Sunday, having been on Hawaii the day Pearl Harbor was attacked) and I appreciate what they’re risking to do the jobs that they chose to do, just as I appreciate what Erv and Jeremy (the firefighter) risked for their jobs.
I still don’t want to get held up if I’m trying to pick my kid up off the bus or get to class on time. Some things you really cannot be late for.
Then perhaps that’s the problem. People generally don’t read small articles that aren’t on the front page of the paper (if they read the paper at all), so maybe they’re not aware that there’s a repatriation ceremony going on.
No one’s arguing that they deserve less than a hero’s welcome. But perhaps another route should be chosen for the motorcade, or perhaps such ceremonies should be publicized so people can plan for them.
Dear, rush hour is from 4 pm to 7 pm pretty much everywhere. It’s the end of the workday, and yes, 10 minutes can make the difference between being able to get home within a reasonable time or facing a long walk; or it can make the difference in picking the kids up on time versus facing an expensive penalty that not everyone can afford.
If you want to stand on the sidewalk and wave a flag, go for it. Not wanting to do the same doesn’t make someone less of a patriot, and it certainly doesn’t mean they don’t respect the troops, particularly the ones who have died. It just means that, for whatever reason, they don’t care to do it right then and there when they don’t have a choice.
For that matter, I agree with Snarky_Kong and tdn. Calling someone “despicable” or “disgusting” for holding an opposite opinion just makes you (the categorical “you”, not “you” specifically, although you are included in that group) look self-righteous and shrill.
Robin
Yeah… just imagine if you had ADD!