homo escapeons

TOMORROW PEOPLE

Since I will be repeating my expedition to the memorial services at the Legislature I thought that I might as well re-post;

I have three World War One connections.

First and foremost is my Paternal Grandfather, Joseph Coppens, who left Nederbraakel, Belgium, in 1929.
He told me that a big part of the reason was because of the occupation of his village by the Germans during WW1 and he never wanted to live through that again.

He was only 23 years old and the only member of his family to emigrate to Canada.

The second connection is that I had the medals of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae who wrote In_Flanders_Fields .

I sold them in 1997 thinking that they would be better off in the care of a Collector.
The medals soon went to auction and sold for nearly $500,000. The new owner donated them to a Museum, McCrae_House , where they belong.

The incident became a national story and you can read about my ordeal in my archive June 8, 2006.

Willy Coppens, who was the Flying Ace of Belgium.

My third connection to WW1, is my Grandfather's distant cousin, or so he told me when I was a lad,

Archive Aug 19, 2006.

So this Rememberance Day my good-lady-wife, youngest son and I went to the Legislative Grounds to pay our respects.

The canon fire was so terrifyingly LOUD

that I thought that all of the windows in the surrounding office buildings were going to shatter.

We decided to tour inside the Legislative Building after the ceremony.

Afterall it is a magnificent edifice.

Our Provincial mascot is the Bison which were "once the most numerous single species of large wild mammal on Earth" which were so mercilessly slaughtered in North America from 1820 to 1880 that their numbers were reduced from an estimated 30 million to 1,000...a fitting metaphor for the plunder of the New World eh?

We took a photo of this incredible "mural depicting Canadian army life in France during the First World War painted by Frank Brangwyn of London, England, one of Europe's finest muralists. The mural portrays the carnage and tragic sacrifice of war but bright flowers in the foreground herald the coming of peace."

I started to imagine what it would be like to work there...

...hmm

I could be a model of society..

no really..literally..

like a wax figure of the average citizen?

No. I must aim higher!

I couldn't be Minister of Healthy Living..

as a germaphobe I nearly barfed just thinking about all of the germs on that doorknob.

Water Conservation only reminded me about how badly I needed to find the biffy.

We passed by Family Services so I teased my son about trading him in if he didn't behave!

No  answer.

I pretended to be the Minister of Science & Technology as the other Tourists wandered by..



Wow!

Working on a Civic Holiday, what dedication.

I told a young couple passing by that I was working on providing free internet

heh heh heh.

I'm afraid that I prolly wouldn't do well in Government because of all the bloody rules that the guy in this office tries to enforce..

hey protocol this!

So as you can see, I enjoyed many of my freedoms today,

but I did not forget the terrible price that it cost others.

"If you don't know your past,
you don't know your future.

Tomorrow People,

today is here."

Ziggy Marley.