We stop today to remember the sacrifices made by so many people in order that we might enjoy the peace and freedom we have today.

Thank you doesn’t say enough.

I first wrote about why I wear a red poppy and not a white one a couple of years ago. Now, according to a CBC story, the Rideau Institute has taken over the task from the Island Peace Committee in Prince Edward Island and is running a white poppy campaign. The problem is that their whole campaign is based on the incorrect interpretation of what a red poppy pin signifies. According to the story, they claim the red poppy pins glorify war.

They are  wrong.

The red poppies do not “glorify war”. They are symbols of “Remembrance, our visual pledge to never forget all those Canadians who have fallen in war and military operations”. Though they’ve been this symbol since 1921, their association with those who were killed in wars can be traced back to the Napoleonic Wars in the 1800s, more than 110 years before being adopted in Canada.

“Anyone who thinks soldiers selling poppies is glorifying war knows nothing about war,” he said. “You’ll never find anyone who hates it more. It makes me misty. My father served and couldn’t talk about it until I was 18.” — Doug Gunn, son of a verteran (quoted in the CBC story)

Personally, I wear a poppy to remember people I never knew but who died serving my country, and family members like my great-uncle Fred who died in 1944. I also wear it as a sign of respect for those who have served and survived, such as my former neighbour, Jack, who I have seen in the crowd shots in the television coverage of more than one Remembrance Day ceremony. Jack told me a couple of years ago that he has been asked to lay a wreath on behalf of our MP at the local Remembrance Day ceremony, something he was immensely proud of.

It’s important to understand that the red poppies are for those who died and not for the wars they died in. To suggest that they stand for anything else is incredibly disrespectful of their sacrifice.

If you did, then you should head over to the Earthquakes Canada website and fill out a report. The preliminary reports put it as a magnitude 5.2 on the Richter scale near Shawville, Quebec, though I expect that will be revised as the data are reviewed.

Sadly, I will not be doing that because I was, apparently, completely oblivious to it.

Every 18th of April is the International Day for Monuments and Sites. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) celebrates the day with a different theme. This year’s theme is The Heritage of Education.

Education is, among other things, the transmission of beliefs, values and knowledge, making it one of the main methods for constructing the future.

Initially, education consisted of adults passing on the knowledge and skills that the young people in their societies needed to master in order to survive. Before written languages were developed, this would be done through story-telling and demonstration. As written languages emerged, this knowledge could be preserved permanently in written form, but even still the oral traditions persisted and continue to to this day.

At some point, the amount of recorded knowledge would hit critical mass and formal education and schooling emerged. Records show that this was taking place in Egypt as early as 3000 BP. Though Plato’s Academy in Athens was the first institution of higher learning in the western world, Alexandria in Egypt eventually succeeded Athens as the intellectual centre of the western world.

Education took place in all sorts of places and buildings, from open spaces to buildings built specifically for leaning. Schools, universities, libraries and so on were places where knowledge was both housed and transmitted. The UNESCO World Heritage List has many heritage properties linked to education on it. Sites like the Bauhaus in Germany, the University and historic precinct of Alcalá de Henares in Spain and the Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) are a few examples of sites of significance inscribed on the WHL. Unfortunately, there are many cultural properties linked to education with historic, artistic or social values that are not on the list and thus are not being protected and recognized as they should. Conservation activities often focus on the education programs themselves instead of the buildings and places where they take place, in some cases for hundreds of years, something that needs to change if we do not want to lose these cultural heritage resources.

Sixty-one years ago one of the most influential authors of the 20th century was born. I am referring, of course, to the late Douglas Adams.

Author of great works of literature such as the wildly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy and several Dirk Gently novels, not to mention his contributions in the Doctor Who universe, Douglas Adams’ passed away suddenly in 2011 due to a heart attack.

The Google Doodle today was a very clever tribute to Douglas Adams, complete with animations and sounds. Very classy, Google!

Next year, Douglas Adams would have been 62, which as luck and math would have it is a significant number. I wonder if there’s going to be a special celebration.

I almost forgot about it, but fortunately someone (Thanks, Ken!) reminded me earlier this week: This is the weekend that we set our clocks forward an hour (unless you live in Saskatchewan in which case don’t worry about it). As I’ve mentioned once or twice in the past, there isn’t any reliable evidence that daylight saving time has resulted in energy savings (ever) and there is research that shows an increase in accidents in the days immediately following the switch.

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