🕯️ Remember
That evening, the group sat around a small fire 🔥, sharing a modest meal of foraged roots and dried berries 🌿🥕.
The flickering flames cast shifting shadows across the library’s walls, where books on history, war, and politics 📚 sat untouched — their pages heavy with lessons the world once ignored.
Jas poked at the embers with a charred stick.
“Do you think Carney really stood up to Trump?” 🤔 they asked quietly.
Roman shrugged. “Probably tried. But standing up to bullies only works if people have your back 💪.”
“Pierre sounded like he wanted to be a mini-Trump 😒,” Ivy Mae muttered, flipping through a crumbling newspaper 🗞️. The headlines screamed of protests, scandals, and power struggles ⚡ — echoes of a world that had already burned itself down 🔥.
“Maybe that’s why things got so bad,” Jas said softly.
A heavy silence followed 🤫. The world had been here before — leaders rising with dangerous ideas, people divided, history repeating 🔄.
And yet, here they were again, sitting in the ruins left behind 🏚️.
🌺 Lest We Forget — But Do We Ever Truly Remember? 🌺
Remembrance Day was meant to honour those who fought for freedom and peace ✌️🕊️.
But what did that truly mean?
Who was remembered — and who was erased? ❌
The history books told stories of Canadian soldiers in the trenches of World War I 💣, enduring mustard gas and endless shelling.
They spoke of the beaches of Normandy 🏖️, where young men — many no older than Jas — charged into gunfire to fight fascism.
But they left out so much.
🎖️ The Forgotten Soldiers
- Indigenous Veterans: Thousands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit soldiers fought bravely — yet when they came home, many lost their Indian Status, their land, and their rights 🏞️💔.
- Black Canadians: The No. 2 Construction Battalion, an all-Black unit in World War I, wasn’t allowed to fight alongside white soldiers ⚒️. They proved their loyalty through back-breaking labour, denied equal honour.
- Japanese Canadians: Some served in World War II 🗾, even as their families were stripped of homes and businesses, locked in internment camps — not for what they’d done, but for who they were ⛓️.
📚 Lessons We Ignored
Fascism wasn’t just a European nightmare. It crept into North America, too 🗺️.
Hitler admired Jim Crow laws in the U.S. and drew inspiration from Canada’s Indian Act — a chilling truth too often overlooked 😨.
The world watched dictators rise — Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin — each twisting patriotism into a weapon of control ⚔️.
Then came Vietnam, climate emergencies 🌪️, economic crises 💸, and tech disasters 🤖.
Protests erupted, artists resisted 🎨✊, youth demanded change — all echoes of generations trying to wake the world 🕯️.
Even shows like MAS*H tried to laugh through the pain 😢😂, wrapping tragedy in satire — a way to make sense of the senseless.
But did it change anything?
If history keeps repeating 🔄, did we ever really learn?
The fire crackled softly 🔥, as Ivy Mae stared into the light ✨.
“War isn’t just about battles,” they said. “It’s about the stories, the lies, and the things people would rather forget.” 🕊️
Roman nodded. “And the people who get erased ❌.”
Jas glanced at the scattered newspapers 🗞️, the fragile relics of a fractured world.
“Maybe that’s our job now,” they whispered. “To remember what they wanted us to forget 🌾.”
The wind sighed through the broken windows 🍃, carrying the scent of smoke, memory, and lessons waiting to be heard 🌬️🔥.
They didn’t know who had won the last elections of that old world 🗳️ — maybe it didn’t matter anymore.
Because the real fight wasn’t for power ⚡.
It was for memory. For truth. For never letting history repeat itself again ✨💛.
🌺 Lest we forget. But this time… let’s truly remember. 🕊️🌾