By Doug Draper
On a recent visit to Buffalo, New York, I was driving along a stretch of Delaware Avenue where some of the grandest old estates still stand in a city that was once home to more millions per capita than any other town or city in North America.
Along this stretch of what some still call Buffalo’s ‘Millionaires’ Row’, a lone man wearing a kaki uniform stood stone faced and at attention, holding a cardboard sign that read; “Help me. I’m a veteran.”
In what can only be called a national disgrace, statistics show that an average of 17 U.S. veterans who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq commit suicide each day – far more than the daily death toll in combat. The rates of joblessness, homelessness and brain trauma among American veterans are equally alarming.
In Canada, the lot of our military veterans is hardly any better.
According to a recent series of investigative reports by The Globe and Mail newspaper, at least 54 Canadian soldiers have committed suicide since serving in combat in Afghanistan and large numbers of veterans are not getting the health care and other services they need to assist their return to civilian life.
At the same time, a Harper government in Canada that pretended to celebrate the military and is now thankfully gone, closed nine Veterans Offices across the country and cut pensions and other support services for veterans.
Canadian veterans protest cuts to services during recent federal election.
On this November 11th Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States, Canadians and Americans alike should pledge to collectively turn away from politicians who urge us to “support the troops” when they send them off to fight and die, but who fail to provide the support needed to those who return home.
We should not allow Remembrance Day and Veterans Day to be coopted by those who would have us honour war or see it as anything more than a very last resort after all other efforts to resolve disputes between peoples and nations have been exhausted.
Just as importantly, these Days should be a reminder to all of us that we, as citizens, have a responsibility to those who sacrifices their lives for what they believed were struggles to preserve our systems of freedom and democracy, to keep ourselves informed and engaged in the affairs of our communities and countries – and to stand up not just for ourselves, but for the common good.
Each November 11th, I like to share the lyrics of a song I feel capture some of the spirit of the day. This time, I turned to what American folksinger Joan Baez once called one of the most powerful anti-war songs she ever heard. It is a song by Bob Dylan called ‘With God On Our Side’ which, unfortunately, is just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 1963.
I will leave you with the lyrics to that song here.
“With God On Our Side”
Oh my name it is nothin’.
My age it means less.
The country I come from,
Is called the Midwest.
I’s taught and brought up there,
The laws to abide,
And the land that I live in,
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it,
They tell it so well,
The cavalries charged,
The Indians fell,
The cavalries charged,
The Indians died,
Oh the country was young,
With God on its side.
The Spanish-American,
War had its day,
And the Civil War too,
Was soon laid away,
And the names of the heroes,
I’s made to memorize,
With guns on their hands,
And God on their side.
The First World War, boys,
It came and it went,
The reason for fighting,
I never did get,
But I learned to accept it,
Accept it with pride,
For you don’t count the dead,
When God’s on your side.
A soldier hangs dead on barbed wire in the no-man’s lands of the First World War
When the Second World War,
Came to an end,
We forgave the Germans,
And then we were friends,
Though they murdered six million,
In the ovens they fried,
The Germans now too,
Have God on their side.
I’ve learned to hate Russians,
All through my whole life,
If another war comes,
It’s them we must fight,
To hate them and fear them,
To run and to hide,
And accept it all bravely,
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons,
Of the chemical dust,
If fire them we’re forced to,
Then fire them we must,
One push of the button,
And a shot the world wide,
And you never ask questions,
When God’s on your side.
In a many dark hour,
I’ve been thinkin’ about this,
That Jesus Christ,
Was betrayed by a kiss,
But I can’t think for you,
You’ll have to decide,
Whether Judas Iscariot,
Had God on his side.
So now as I’m leavin’,
I’m weary as Hell,
The confusion I’m feelin’,
Ain’t no tongue can tell,
The words fill my head,
And fall to the floor,
If God’s on our side,
He’ll stop the next war.
For more information on Canadian and American veterans and how you might help, here are a couple of sites you can visit –
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/ .
http://theveteranssupport.org/statistics .
Visit Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.
(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
Thank you for educating those who will hear the deep cries of wrong doings. Such enormity of emotions were reached by your article. Humbling and action calling for me. Appreciate you taking the time to write this. I will share with my children. Because it is then, we can progress as a people, humane and with good solid judgments.
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