[Raine]

I've been thinking about this a lot. Normally, on Remembrance Day, I host my radio show with a 2 hr special honouring those who have fallen in service to the defense of liberty and freedom. And every year, I see people talking or laughing or carrying on in someway during the minute of silence that we observe on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month... and it really irks me. So I've been thinking of a way to drive it home to people even tho I'm not doing my show this year:

Think of everyone you've met whose name you can remember... remember their face, their handshake, their smile. Think of everyone you've ever met who's name holds presence in your mind for whatever reason. For some of us, it may be 50, for others 500... in your mind go thru them, like you would a rolodex, taking 1 second to pause for each just to remember a slight detail about them... If you're like me, that'll take you at least 2 minutes... two minutes to think of 120 people that I've been interviewed by, or cursed at, or met and hoped to never have to meet again... 2 minutes to think of friends, of family, of past relationships...

2 minutes to think of everyone I know who was important enough to make a contribution in my life.

In the First world war alone, 22,104,209 men were either killed or wounded to defend the west from the central powers of germany and her allies. 22 MILLION IN 4 YEARS

World War II saw another 32 Million+ casualties on the allied side as we rebelled against the audacious surge of the Nazi 3rd Reich...

Since then countless soldiers have fallen in wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere...

And those are just the military numbers...

Think of all the civilians, including doctors, engineers, children, who became casualties of war...

Our last century has been stained red by the blood of over 100,000,000 deaths during war on the side we consider fighting for the west alone...

If you took a second to remember 100,000,000 people, you'd be stopped in silence for over 3 years...

Is one minute really so damned much to ask?

Lest we forget...