Tuesday notes

Firstoff, it's Remembrance Day today (Veterans Day for those of you south of the border) so make sure you take at least a few minutes out of your day today to remember and appreciate the sacrifices that were made (and continue to be made even now) by men and women of your country's armed forces so that you and people around the world may enjoy the life you live.

Today is the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I; I read an article the other day in my local paper which exposes just how ignorant some (and I have to emphasize, SOME) of the teenage generation here are about basic Canadian history and the meaning of and reason for Remembrance Day. It greatly upset me to see so many young people completely ignorant of the 115,000 or so Canadian men and women - not much older than these high schoolers themselves in most cases - who died in WWI and WWII. (And the 540,000 American deaths from just those same two wars!). Between the two wars - both of which are still very recent in the big picture of history - between 60 and 120 million people died worldwide, and some kids don't think it's important enough to know basic details of their country's involvement. Sad. Very sad.

As for the poppies....I would gladly put a few dollars in the bucket if it meant even one of those kids would wear one and spend a few moments each day thinking about why they're wearing it and what it means. Sigh. What's that Santayana quote? Those who do not learn from the mistake of history are condemned to repeat them?

Anyway, back to the WHL now....really only one significant bit of news to report today and that's that the Portland Winter Hawks have parted ways with overage tough guy Scott Gabriel. They are looking for takers in a trade but if nothing can be worked out there, I imagine he'll just be released and free to go anywhere. Kamloops, Kelowna, Moose Jaw, and Regina all have open overage spots at the moment, and without Gabriel the Hawks themselves will only have one overager.