“I remember sitting with young men and women who were dealing with the loss of friends and the exposure to tragedies that the conflict brought into their lives. As well as the ones who didn’t come back, I think of the ones who did, forever changed.”
Among those in attendance at the Trenton ceremony was 92-year-old Bob Butler who served in Korea. He was a first class radio operator.
The poppy has a great significance for him.
“I think that poppy means a lot to me because there’s 516 guys who died in Korea.”
Remembrance Day ceremony in Trenton, November 11, 2024. (Photo: Tim Durkin/Quinte News)
“They weren’t won by people who embodied a self-centred, ego-centred me me me ideology. They had a sense of “us”, a sense of inter-connectedness with one another, a sense of a greater good.”
Part of a big crowd of several hundred people at the Belleville Cenotaph Remembrance Day 2024. (Photo: Quinte News)
Those were the fundamental values that formed the foundation for those defending the west in both world wars and others since.
“We are weakened in the west as we sideline that foundation and those values, that moral and ethical clarity. And if we are weakened, the probability that enemies will pounce is that much greater.”
Reverend Beale added that merely remembering and ritualizing the sacrifices made by past and current military members on Remembrance Day was not enough.
Cadets stand guard at the Belleville Cenotaph on Remembrance Day 2024. (Photo: Quinte News)
Scores of other communities held ceremonies on Monday including Brighton, Picton, Wellington and Consecon.
