May 09, 2005
60 years, little learned
In my daily readings I read that Russia is marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and that in 6 years 27 million civilians and soldiers of the former Soviet Union died. I took a second take on that "27 million", unfathomable, especially since the current estimate of the population of Canada is 32,190,455.
A death toll of that magnitude would leave 5 million people scattered across our land, less than 1 out of 5 people surviving. At the time of the war, that was 2.7 times the population of Canada. I wish my knowledge of history was better, but I don't think 100% of those deaths were caused by outside forces, but also by the soviet leaders, and political cleansing (correct me please if I'm wrong).
A quote from the article and Russian President Putin, which are my sentiments exactly:
"May 9 is "a sacred day" in Russia, serving as a reminder of "what monstrous consequences violence and moral intolerance, genocide and persecution of others could lead to."
If only the rest of the world would listen, think and learn from the past. Racial, religious, moral, or political intolerance when taken to heart and pushed to extremes can snowball into horror and death. We're all people, all of us, and we are all entitled to our freedom; that doesn't mean your freedom is the same as mine, or your peace is the same as mine. You can't dictate my lifestyle, just as you can't dictate how I think or feel, I can't condemn you for your fear but I can try to help you understand that it's not needed.
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