ciroccoj | Nov. 8th, 2007

Every year around Rememberance Day, Ottawa's Cubs and Beavers cancel their regular meetings and invade the Canadian War Museum. Hundreds and hundreds of kids get led through parts of the Museum by their leaders. This year Justin's troupe was led through the World War II display by their leader Bubba, a huge guy with the patience of a saint. A saint on Valium. Because seriously, trying to teach history to eight jittery inquisitive chatty little seven year old boys, while wandering through a museum full of guns and bombs and fighter jets and tanks and U-Boats and depth charges and anti-aircraft weaponry and and and and? ::shudder::

Anyway, here's a few of the cute bits from tonight:

Now this was called a World War because it was the last war where a lot of the world was involved in it. ::pause:: Well, you're right, there is a war going on in Afghanistan right now, but it's not called a world war. ::pause:: Yes, Canada's there, but it's not - it's just not called a world war. ::pause:: No, nobody calls it a world war. ::pause:: Yes, I'm sure.
What, Max? ::pause:: Which is the best war? The one that never started.
(In the section on naval operations) Now, what's on three sides of Canada? ::pause:: No, not Italy. ::pause:: No, not Toronto either. Sure seems like it sometimes, though, doesn't it?
Now here's a picture of a Canadian war hero, getting into his plane. ::pause:: Well, yes, he's smoking, but he's still a war hero.
And then the Allies were able to land on the beaches, and then they were able to push their tanks and other weapons into Europe, and go through France, and the Netherlands, and they kept pushing and pushing and pushing until - ::pause:: No, not until they had killed everybody.
Now that you've seen the museum, and you've looked at a lot of this stuff, I want to remind you guys that what you saw, with World War II, that all finished a long, long time ago. That was over sixty years ago. Before you were born. Yeah, Max, even before your mom was born. So you don't have to be worried about it. But right now there are still wars going on. And what we need to remember the most is that sometimes wars are necessary, because sometimes countries disagree so much that they attack each other, but most of the time it's just like what happens at school. When you get into a disagreement with somebody at school, what do you do? ::pause:: No, you don't beat them up. ::pause:: That's right, you try to talk it out. Or you leave. Or you try to find some way of not fighting. Because the most important muscle you've got is not here ::pointing to his rather large arm muscles::, it's in here ::tapping his head:: And if you can use that, then fighting is your last resort.