It’s Remembrance Day today (Nov. 11, 2016), a statutory holiday (in Canada) honouring the members of the military who have died and who have been injured in battle.

As for the survivors, our returning soldiers don’t have adequate support to reenter society after their tour of duty. Even more sadly, that has been true since time immemorial. The one hopeful aspect we have is increased awareness which will hopefully lead to needed changes.

Renata D’Aliesio, Les Perreaux and Allan Maki wrote a Nov. 4, 2016 article for the Globe and Mail about soldier suicide in Canada,

This article is part of The Unremembered, a Globe and Mail investigation into soldiers and veterans who died by suicide after deployment during the Afghanistan mission.

They were sons of bankers, miners and infanteers. They were strongmen and endurance runners. They were husbands and fathers who took their children camping and taught them how to play shinny on backyard rinks.

All 31 were dedicated Canadian soldiers and airmen who served on the perilous Afghanistan mission. They all came home. All ended their lives.

Most were haunted by the things they saw and did in Afghanistan, their families told The Globe and Mail. Many asked the military for help, but in several cases, their medical assessments and treatment were delayed, even as their post-traumatic stress, depression and sleeplessness worsened.

I believe there are issues with former peacekeepers; I’m thinking in particular of those who served in the Balkans and Rwanda, although I’m other certain missions could also be mentioned.

I grew up in a house with someone who had PTSD (post traumatic stress syndrome)—my father, a WWII veteran. It was difficult; he was difficult.  Only many years later did I realize what an extraordinary effort it must have taken for him to establish a family and relationships, go to work day in and day out, fight a battle with the bottle in his 40s, and come through the other side when he was in 70s, shortly before he died.

I once read this description of the process we all have to go through when soldiers return (the following is paraphrased),

There are two jobs to be accomplished. We have to forgive them (the soldiers) for what they’ve done and then, they have to forgive us for asking them to do it.

If I find anything about how to encourage the Canadian military to provide better support other than contacting your Member of Parliament, I will add it to this post.

One final remembrance of things past. Leonard Cohen died on Nov. 10, 2016. This Oct. 17, 2016 article by David Remnick seems quite timely (h/t Lainey Gossip Nov. 11, 2016 intro),

… Even before he had much of an audience, he had a distinct idea of the audience he wanted. In a letter to his publisher, he said that he was out to reach “inner-directed adolescents, lovers in all degrees of anguish, disappointed Platonists, pornography-peepers, hair-handed monks and Popists.”

I find it peculiarly appropriate to apply the description to soldiers.

Finally, here’s the song everyone has been playing in tribute to Cohen. This cover features a performance by the sublime K D Lang,

In Memoriam.