HAVE WE EARNED IT?

Near the ending of the film, Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks character (John Miller) is heard whispering to Matt Damon's character, "Earn this, Earn it". At the very end we see an aged Private James Ryan with his family by his side visiting the grave of Miller. He is at that moment trying to understand if he indeed had, ''earned it'', had lived a life which honored the sacrifice of Miller and his unit that sought him out during the war. As i watched this film (always do around this time of year) a question came to me which seems more appropriate. Have WE earned it? Have we earned the sacrifice all those men and women made for us? Have we, the people of the world earned their honor. In my case i can say no. In my mind the unfortunate answer for the rest of us is also NO!

We are quickly working our way to the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and if you look around you might find yourself hard pressed to find indicators that we have, ''earned'' the ultimate sacrifice all of those men and women made for us in not only that conflict but all those before and after. The resounding question is what does it mean to, "Earn It"? Does it mean an estimated 51 million people killed in wars from 1945 to 2000? (that does not include Afghanistan or Iraq). Does ''Earn it'' mean, letting 6 million children die every year of hunger? Does it mean excesses beyond imagination? Dictatorships and tyranny abound? Waste? Environmental destruction? Overall abuse of the planet we live on? Imagine for just one moment if it was possible to sit infront of a handful of soldiers who gave their lives for the idea of freedom and ask them if we, "Earned it". My feeling is we would not like the answer. Our problem is we have convinced ourselves through our "good intentions" that we are some how worthy of the sacrifices made. We give a little to charity, we vote, we cringe at the violence in the world. We tell ourselves we are doing our little part. It is a falicy! It is not only erroneous but blatantly ignorant. We have turned our heads time and time again to the opportunities which have presented themselves for us to, "'Earn it". Instead we have closed our eyes and told ourselves, "we are doing all we can, the best we can". It is the sad reality.

Those soldiers might tell us that what they gave us in the form of their sacrifice is not earned because we faced down a tyrant or two. It is not earned because we invented TV, computers and mobile phones. It is not because those blessed with riches live a life of gluttony and over consumption, while vast areas of our world starve and die regularly from treatable diseases. They might tell us that not very much about what we have done has truly, "Earned it". The idea that we still argue about race, religion and orientation says only that we have taken their sacrifice and made a mockery of it. We are all too comfortable with our ' Lifestyle' to even begin to understand what we could possibly have done to earn what those men and women gave us. Is it not fair to say, that we have, ''underachieved, failed miserably, let them and most importantly ourselves down''? Of course its not fair. Right? Those people who actually believe that we have, ''earned it'' will tell you that the sacrifice of those soldiers was exactly so the world could become what it is today. That we have a choice that the freedom they guaranteed us justifies where we are as a society. That my friends is nonsense. Go stand with your children at the Tomb of the unknown soldier in Ottawa, try to take a breath as you stand looking over the vastness of the cemetary in Arlington Virgina. Touch the monument at Dieppe and tell yourself you've, ''earned it''. It might not be so easy.

In the not so distant future i fear mankind will be brought to its knees with the realization of just how miniscule we truly are in the whole scheme of the universe. At that we might, just might, come to the understanding about what sacrifice truly means. We might come to understand what humanity was supposed to be about or at the very least what we were supposed to be working towards. The idea that we cannot solve the simplest of problems will only demonstrate how we have failed on the grandest scale. The notion that the days of men were marked by wars, and violence and periods of peace which did not ultimately further the betterment of all men will be our legacy. Our unrelenting goal of self comfort and self betterment will guarantee that man will never have truly, 'Earn it'. Look around you as we approach November 11th, how many poppy's do you see? How much knowledge and most importantly respect do we have for what was given to us by those men and women? How have we historically passed this down from one generation to the next to ensure a lasting legacy of respect and admiration? For to many of us we are unable to see past yesterdays breakfast to look back on those sacrifices and appreciate the magnitude of them. To appreciate that we are truly failing as a species when it comes to making the world we live in better for EVERYONE.

Don't worry though, go back to what you were doing. Fret not. Those heroes of our past have long since been forgotten by the vast majority of us. You never have to worry about that meeting between the soldiers of the past and the people of the present. It will never happen. Unfortunately that seems to mean that we will never truly be able to ''Earn it'', as long as we cannot even appreciate what, ''IT'' was.

Rob