I’ve received a great many letters asking me where are the editorials? And why Am I not writing?
The answer to all of the questions is this: I am still writing editorials. It’s just that I’m a bit tired and have also been distracted with personal and business obligations.
I was in Toronto last week visiting clients. Galganov Dot Com needs my financial input to survive. I would love it, if it was the other way around and Galganov.com was self-financing, but it is not.
So, if you enjoy reading and hearing my thoughts on Galganov.com, I better continue earning money at my day job to keep it going. Or you can send a donation.
It’s also about the coming season. Winter will be upon us with a vengeance sooner rather than later. Living on a farm demands a great deal of winter preparation. So, over the past few weeks I’ve been winterizing my tractors and other equipment.
I’ve been constructing facilities to shelter our hay machinery (haybine, rake/tedder, baler and wagons), and to reinforce my tractor garage in anticipation of a winter the likes of which we had last year (2007).
We also maintain a generator system that powers the entire property including the house, office, barn, garage, work sheds and Equestrian Camping Center. I had to build a separate structure to protect the generator.
I even had to blowout all of our underground water lines that are not used in the winter. There’s a lot to do.
The good news is that MOST of my winter preparation work is done, and I will have more time to once again write editorials and continue to work on the SECOND book ($50 For Grenadier) of my SIX PART Horse Series.
Here’s some news to catch you up on about what is happening:
I received word last Friday (November 7, 2008) from our Ottawa Lawyer that the Russell Township Forced Bilingual Sign Law will be heard in Court during the first week of March 2009.
Our opposition’s lawyer, Ron Caza, wants a full week in front of a bilingual judge in Ottawa to present his ‘expert’ witnesses, all of whom we have very little interest in deposing.
Caza has a great interest in presenting them for several reasons.
1 – Caza has very little with which to fight. His huge pro French language victories have ALL been in opposition to bilingualism, since in his opinion, and in the opinion of all of his previous witnesses, bilingualism is the fast track to Anglo assimilation and the end of the French language.
2 – Caza wants to run-up the tab. He sees this court challenge just as he has seen all the others – a huge payday for himself.
The truth and reality of all of this is clear. I don’t give a damn what Ron Caza wants, or how he wants to proceed with his case. I ONLY care about our RIGHT to FREEDOM of EXPRESSION.
Caza can twist his defense into pretzels explaining why bilingualism in Quebec is suicide for French speakers; while bilingualism in Ontario is the ONLY salvation for French speakers. UH?
He will do everything he can to prove that the French language is vulnerable; therefore FORCED bilingualism is necessary to the survival of the French language and the French culture.
We will argue that the French language is not vulnerable, and even if it is, it is up to the French community to promote and protect their own culture. It should not be up to the English community to sacrifice our Charter Rights of Freedom of Expression on the altar of French language advocacy.
I am far more concerned with the diminishing Freedoms for ALL Canadians that should be guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but are obviously not.
Anne and I took most of the day off yesterday (November 11, 2008), to stand shoulder to shoulder with several hundred people at Place du Canada in downtown Montreal, none of whom we knew, but with all of whom we had a common attachment.
It was Remembrance Day. At 11:00 o’clock, we stood in silence for two minutes remembering those who fought in Canada’s many wars for the principle of Freedom. Many of whom died on foreign soil where they were buried.
We saw the ever-aging faces of the elderly men and women who fought those wars. And as in every year, we saw fewer faces of those whose sacrifice gave us the Freedom we enjoy today. Soon none of them will be left.
As always, the crowd was unique in several ways:
1 – It was a pitifully small crowd at just several hundred people who were to pay their respects and remember.
2 – The vast majority of people who came to pay their respects and remember were virtually all English speakers, as if remembering all those people who sacrificed so much for our way of life, was somehow mostly an English obligation.
3 – The master of ceremonies spoke in French First. I don’t think any of the many wreath layers who were introduced were English speakers. And the military honor guard barked their orders only in the French language.
4 – The irony here, was that if the English speakers who came to show their respect, such as Anne and myself didn’t bother to show up, all of the French organizers including the master of ceremonies and wreath layers would be speaking and performing to an empty ‘house’.
5 – For the first time since I’ve been attending these ceremonies of Remembrance, which seems to be forever, there were no Quebec flags (fleur-de-lys). There was ONLY the Canadian Maple Leaf, as it should be.
6 – When the speeches and wreath-laying were done, Anne and I, along with the others in attendance lined the street to clap our hands in thanks to the few remaining WWII and Korean Veterans who were still able to march with their service medals proudly displayed which were earned more than 6 decades ago.
Not only did Anne and I remember those Veterans from before my birth, we remembered those young Canadian men and women who are in Afghanistan who are now giving it their all.
We also think about the Americans, British, Australians and Europeans who too are laying it all on the line in the name of Freedom, and give silent thanks to them as well.
As the Veterans marched by, a gentleman in his mid sixties (I am guessing) approached them and said “thank you”. “Thank you” he repeated. He wiped a tear from his eye, and walked back to the side of the road to continue to give applause like the rest of us.
On Father’s Day, in memory of my parents’ service to Canada, especially my dad who was a bona-fide WWII hero, Anne and I visit the cemetery where my parents are buried side by side to place a small Canadian Flag in the ground at the middle of their common headstone.
On every November 11th since my dad died in 1994, we revisit the cemetery where I pin the Poppy that I wore at the downtown commemoration upon the Canadian Flag that adorns their grave.
In this way, with this simple gesture, my dad still plays an active part in Remembrance Day. LEST THEY NOT BE FORGOTTEN.
I remember my dad proudly wearing his Canadian Legion Beret as he used to, as he marched down the street from Place du Canada in lockstep with his former comrades-in-arms.
I can still see his shiny Medals displayed upon his chest.
I will never serve Canada the way he and so many others like him have. I will never be asked to lay my life on the line in battle, fighting for the Liberty of others as my dad and so many others like him have over the years.
But I will NEVER sit idly by watching others take away the Freedoms we have, the Freedoms that have been fought, bled and died for by those exceptional men and women we remember on November 11th.
I will NEVER dishonor the sacrifice of my dad and all those others by doing nothing to preserve all they did for us. NEVER!
Please spread the word about Galganov.com and let as many people as you know, know that we are not alone, and the FIGHT for FREEDOM is worth FIGHTING.
If you would like to hear an audio version of this editorial (approximately 6 minutes long) click on the Radio Button top right of the this page.
Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov
One Comment
Howard, I hope you are right about our managing to get back the Senate; and I hope we have somebody other than Boehner as Speaker of the House. This administration and the man who “leads” it will go down in history as the worst ever; Obama even makes Israel-hater Jimmy Carson look better. (Not good, but better.) I hope we can get a real person next election; my own preference is Dr. Ben Carson, who would make the name ‘Carson’ look much better than it does now.
Marianne Hart
Comments are closed.