My Friend Stephen...

When a person dies, it's a tragedy...when a person dies serving their country, it's a national tragedy as well as a family one. With Harper's new rules, not only can the flag on parliament be lowered to half mass upon a soldiers' death, but their bodies cannot be shown by the media arriving back from the combat zone. The government claims that this provides a better environment for healing the families of their grief...but to what end? When a firefighter or police officer dies in the line of duty, are we not to recognize them? Since when is any government so concerned about the lives of their soldiers never mind their families? Is this move to distance the Canadian mind from what we are losing in Afghanistan...young Canadian heroes? I believe it is. Maybe the Americans are losing so many lives in Iraq that they don't even bother to put their flag down anymore, but we are not. When we lose lives like this and don't lower the flag, we demean ourselves by not immediately showing the world that we care for each and every hero we lose. And the Americans don't like to show the bodies arriving home because if the American citizens saw what was being lost in Iraq, war support would plummit. Sadly, for four Canadian soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country and in turn made their country proud, the majority of Canadians were unable to view these men and show them the respect they so greatly deserved. But even more sad then that; the deaths of these men were hidden from view and used as a political pawn to further Stephan Harper's agenda. It all starts here. Soon, when a soldier dies, many will not even know...a short blurb in the news and the flag not even dropping, it will be like we are not in any conflict at all. The unfortunate part of WW1 and WW2, so many died that we have been unable to respect every last soldier individually. But if we have that chance, to honour the individiuality of every fallen soldier, and do all we can do to show a nations appreciation and respect, then we must do it. After all, it would seem the majority of us may be willing, but are not actually putting our lives on the line for our nation.