{"id":4287,"date":"2013-10-16T17:31:44","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T21:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4287"},"modified":"2013-10-23T23:56:53","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T03:56:53","slug":"senior-scape-the-universal-solider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/senior-scape-the-universal-solider\/","title":{"rendered":"SENIOR SCAPE: The Universal Solider"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jim L. Abram<\/strong><\/p>\n

He\u2019s 5 foot 2 and he\u2019s 6 feet 4; He fights with missiles and with spears; He\u2019s all of 31 and he\u2019s only 17; He\u2019s been a soldier for a thousand years.
\nHe\u2019s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist, and a Baptist and Jew and he knows he shouldn\u2019t kill and he knows he always will kill; you\u2019ll for me my friend and me for you.
\nAnd he\u2019s fighting for Canada. He\u2019s fighting for France. He\u2019s fighting for the USA. And he\u2019s fighting for the Russians. And he\u2019s fighting for Japan. And he thinks we\u2019ll put an end to war this way.
\nAnd He\u2019s fighting for democracy, He\u2019s fighting for the reds, He says it\u2019s for the peace of all. He\u2019s the one, who must decide, who\u2019s to live and who\u2019s to die. And he never sees the writing on the wall.
\nBut without him, how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau? Without him Caesar would have stood alone; He\u2019s the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war. And without him all this killing can\u2019t go on.
\nHe\u2019s the universal soldier and he really is the blame. His orders come from far away no more.
\nThey come from him, and you and me. And brothers can\u2019t you see. This is not the way we put an end to war.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1970, when Buffy Saint Marie wrote this, I learned that five of my American cousins were being conscripted to go and kill people in Vietnam. All these years later, that has moulded my life. We are responsible for what we do. Ends do not justify means. Means are the ends. What we do and how we do it is the goal. Thank you Buffy, but you don\u2019t have it exactly right.
\nMy thoughts reflect upon my relatives and friends who fought in two World Wars, in Vietnam and on the kids of Aurora who I had coached in hockey and soccer who as recently as this week told me stories of their horrifying experiences in Afghanistan.
\nMy wife\u2019s grandfather was asked at the point of a gun if he would like to join the German army. He had no choice. He was killed defending a bridge in Italy. My American cousins were given draft notices and sent to Vietnam to fight in that \u201cconflict\u201d. Fortunately, they all survived, but many of their friends did not. My wife\u2019s parents were both put in concentration camps as children living in what is now Yugoslavia. They lost everything they had. They escaped to Germany then immigrated to Canada as did many of their friend\u2019s fortunate enough to survive.
\nNow, the idea of a veteran being an old man having a beer at the Legion is not true. Well, it never was. Now, a veteran is not just you, your father or grandfather, it can be your own son, daughter, grandson or granddaughter. As a species, we seem to never learn from our past. There must be a better way to resolve our differences. We should be celebrating our differences. In peace.
\nIn support of our friends and colleagues in military service and at The Royal Canadian Legion, all Seniors Association members are invited, and encouraged, to attend the Remembrance Day Parade and Ceremony on Sunday November 10th for the 11 a.m. ceremony at the Aurora Cenotaph.
\nThe Aurora Cenotaph (located at the Aurora War Memorial and Peace Park), is Aurora\u2019s only memorial tower. Built in 1925, it stands 73 feet high, and recognizes the local soldiers from Aurora, King and Whitchurch-Stouffville who served and fell (77 local men) in the Great War.
\nThe Altar of Sacrifice located at the base of the Cenotaph was dedicated in 1960 to those who died (55 local men) in World War II. The Cenotaph is constructed on the land once owned by the military leader William Graham. William Graham fought in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812.
\n
\nHOLIDAY BAZAAR<\/strong>
\nThe Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre is hosting their Annual Holiday Bazaar on November 9 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vendors from the Farmers\u2019 Market and the Seniors\u2019 Association will be there. So should you! There will be a Tea Room and of course the popular Bake Table and much, much more! It\u2019s a great opportunity to do your holiday shopping. See you there!
\nMy last word: Exercise your \u201ctrue patriot love\u201d \u2013 thank a veteran, hire a veteran, and help a veteran. Honour and respect go two ways.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre and all it has to offer, drop by 90 John West Way, visit the web site www.auroraseniors.ca, email auroraseniors@rogers.com or call 905-726-4767 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jim L. Abram He\u2019s 5 foot 2 and he\u2019s 6 feet 4; He fights with missiles and with spears; He\u2019s all of 31 and he\u2019s only 17; He\u2019s been a soldier for a thousand years. He\u2019s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist, and a Baptist and Jew and he knows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-179","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 18:50:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}