Remembrance Day

Okay....so usually this blog is just for fun, but once in awhile everybody needs to take a stand.  Anybody out there who knows me is aware of the long running battles I have had with the health authorites, provincial gov. and the local private seniors facility here in town.  We have had many heated confrontations as I and my partners in advocacy, have fought for the rights of the people who built this country.  Sometimes we have literally fought for their right to take their next breath.  The system is disgusting and getting worse (I am not slamming front line workers here, but the management which makes their jobs impossible).
Anyway, I sent this letter to our local newspaper, well in advance of Remembrance Day.  Sadly, but not suprisingly, they decided not to run the letter.  It has been my history with this paper that they will not cover anything more controversial than an ant crossing the road, because they are afraid of repercussions from advertisers, political back lash etc.  So, even this letter, that is a simple fact which they could have checked with a couple of phone calls, did not run.  Perish the thought that a NEWSpaper might rile up an advertiser or a government run organization, by publishing the facts....
To me it would seem like perhaps the term "NEWS" ought to be removed and replaced with "vested interest stenographer service".
This was my letter:
Dear Editor,

As Remembrance day draws near, I think it might be of special interest for people to know something kind of, disturbingly interesting. To the best of my knowledge, (unless things have changed dramatically in the last very short while), that the full care seniors facilities, right here in Cranbrook, the buildings that house our sick, fragile and elderly citizens, do NOT have Remembrance day ceremonies ON Remembrance Day.
Those would be the very same facilities that now take 80% of the person's income to be able to stay there...yes, those facilities.

The places generally put up some photos of residents and usually have some sort of honorary celebration a couple of days BEFORE the actual day, but not on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

That is what the solemnity of the ceremony revolves around and that is, without question, in my mind at least, the minimal degree of respect owed to the people who earned the honour in the first place.

When I repeatedly questioned facility management in the past, as to what looks like a wanton disregard for the actual war heroes under their roof, I was told that it is a stat holiday and they were not going to call staff in on a stat. I reminded, said management, that it wouldn't be a stat holiday at all if it weren't for the very people who fought for our freedom and who are living out their days in residential care. The people who now face the ultimate slap in the face of such a disgraceful slight, by a generation and most certainly, a government, which seems to have forgotten what it means to remember.
Use your voice. Be the change.
Sincerely
Jacquie Clinton