Will You Die For Me?

You’ve seen it in motion pictures, the dramatic scene, arm stretched out as one lover asks the other, “Will you die for me?” Your hand is probing the popcorn and at that moment you hear a whimper to your right. You then notice that the gal who came to the theatre with you is sobbing, but nary a tear rolls down yours. It’s just a movie, no loss.

Have you ever walked up to a perfect stranger and looked them straight in the eye and say, “Will you die for me?” Or better yet, say to someone you don’t know, “I will die for you.” What you may get is a very strange look and depending on the situation, a visit from a white shirt. But then again, those are only words, and as the old maxim is “Actions are stronger than words.”
This whole preamble sounds absurd at best, but that is exactly what every citizen of Canada asks each soldier sent into a war zone. In the World Wars the threat was pretty clear. World War II saw a Nazi Germany threaten the entire world with policies that would have seen people without white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes either enslaved or killed at the hands of those following a murderous leader. That war saw over 14 million allied troops die to prevent the German, Italian and Japanese forces from fulfilling a final solution on our soil.

Those who lived and breathed in Canada between 1938 and 1945 not only asked the soldiers to die for them but also conscripted those same soldiers into service. Many hugged their loved ones for the last time, stepped on a train never to be seen alive again.

But before that soldier died for you and I, they endured a terrifying existence and by all definitions acted with resolve and fearless determination. The old saying that there are no atheists found in the trenches has special meaning to the solder being shot at, and knowing that the true enemy is encroaching on his position. Death is near, and as that same soldier jumps from his position of virtual safety, those same words are pumping through is heart, “I will die for you.”

The soldiers today fighting in Afghanistan know all to well that the call to duty is not a frivolous one. The threat from terrorism that ignited that war 8 years ago is a clear and present danger. No other time in history has the enemy walked on North American soil and orchestrated the deaths of our citizens. Canadians as well as Americans died at the handy work of those people whose goal is to thrust a final solution on our soil. The Canadian soldiers who have died fighting in Afghanistan knew all too well that the bullets flying overhead were from an enemy who is encroaching on his position. Our Canadian soldier jumps from his position of safety with that same mission statement of “I will die for you.”

The word sacrifice gets thrown about in many ways in our society today. Like many words, the true etymology of the word is lost on a generation where they consider the mundane with lofty expressions like awesome, fantabulous, and bodacious. Sacrifice has been lowered to mean the loss of ones time. It has been taken to a level where it is more of a word expressing numerical value instead of surrendering a life for the sake of others.

With every sacrificial death in battle, the family laid their son before the Alter of Society of which the ripple effect prevents the birth of grandsons and granddaughters whose contributions to society can never be measured. This is the true nature of sacrifice. November 11th is just one day we set aside for the remembrance of those lost in battle and those who served unselfishly to secure the leisure, free life we so much enjoy. The sacrifice was not only those who fought for freedom but is also the sacrifice of the soldier’s family, for those are the people who truly feel the cost of sacrifice.

Today with the world in constant conflict and Canada stepping from the gallery onto the stage, let us not just put one day aside to think of our soldiers present and past. It’s time we started to show our veterans and current serving military that we truly respect, care and love them. It is time that we should all understand that when a soldier steps onto the battlefield that soldier looks us all in the eyes and says, “I will die for you!”