Tonight, watching the Republican National Convention, there was a section dedicated to the familes of victims of 9/11. One women talked about her husband who died that day at the hands of the terrorists, and also mentioned that she was now giving her son to her country to fight in the War against Iraq. This got me thinking. That women said that she was willing to lend her son to her country, knowing full well that there is a chance that her son will not return to her. In essense , she has thought it would be tragic, but worth it for her son do die for her country.
This got me thinking about one of the major differences between Canada and the United States. There are very few of us north of the border that are willing to die for our country. Why is that? There are probably many reasons why people will sign up for military service in the U.S., but not here, so I will list a few ideas:
1. In the U.S. there are far greater incentives to join the military. Many of them will have school fully paid for, and in a country where Post-secondary education is so expensive, this must be a very attractive offer. Here, there are not the same bonuses for joining war.
2. In the U.S., the military is avery noble and honourable service. The military is looked upon as the countries heros. In Canada, the military is mostly regarded as a joke, will little more than water guns, and out-of-date equipment.
3. The reason I believe to be the biggest however, is that there is great pride in the U.S. that is not evident in Canada. Some people may say there is great Canadian pride, but besides rallying around our beloved hockey team, I see little evidence of it. The U.S. believes that it has something great to offer the world, democracy. I don't think that Canada here in Canada we want to be known as democratic. I don't think we want to be known as much, besides the occasional inspiring beer comercial and hockey. It seems that these are the only things we can rally around. Is beer and hockey worth dying for?? Some may joke and say yes, but I would like to see them do the same with a gn pointed to their head. But for many americans, they absolutly believe that democracy is worth dying for.
For me, I don't know if I would die for democracy. Is it a noble enough cause to die for. I think it would be easier for me to consider dying to end some sort of tyranny (like Hitler, Stalin, or even Saddam). Is dying to stop this kind of tyranny just the reeverse of dying to further the cause of democracy? I'm not sure.
I know that there is one thing worth dying for though. I absolutely agree with the apostle Paul in saying, "To live is Christ and to die is gain". There is nothing that is even close to being as important as the cause of Christ. You can fight to end the reign of Hitler, and save many lives here on earth, but if they are still dead spiritually, in the whole scheme of things how much has been gained? I'm sure that I would rather die a martyr for Christ in some village where they have never heard the gospel, than to die ending the reign of a dictator. Both deaths are honourable, there is no question there, but saving a person's eternal soul is far more important than saving someones temporary life on this earth.
Well, I probably could have written about 3-4 separate blogs about the stuff I covered in this one, but one thing just seem to lead to another.
Let me know what you think on any of these issues...
2 comments:
Good blog, my good man. The notion of dying for democracy is vague. What is democracy? Is it what's going on in democracies like China or North Korea? I think there is some real nobility in the US, but I think it's misguided at times. Democracy, at times, seems to be nothing more than the American way of life, which I think needs to be shaken up a bit.
Democracy is a warn out word for a system that was ment for only city states, like those in Greece. The trouble with Democracy is that it is designed to self destruct. Why? Because it allows for anti-democracy sentiments to flurish. Would I die for this system? No. Why? Because it is not designed to allow for real freedom and besides democracy has not and will not work in any nation. Here in Canada it is the minority that tyrannises the majority and whatever is politically correct at the time. Our Nation is what I would call a demo-socialist potache of theft by the State and kill of the poor and the elderly. Freedom is a nice sounding word and when you really think hard about our nations so called freedom, you should come to the conclusion that it is just a nice word to dream about. I would die to defend my nieghbours right to his property and to his/her life. My Province comes first then the country called Canada and I am living in another Kingdom called the Kingdom of God Who reigns over all nations and peoples. But that is my two cents worth.:)
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