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A few days ago, I noticed I needed a poppy for the upcoming Remembrance Day on November 11th, so I was glad to see some at my local Tim Horton's. After ordering my usual "Medium Double-Double" coffee, I asked the young girl at the counter how much the poppies were. She didn't understand what I was talking about, so I pointed to the box with the poppies on the counter. She didn't seem to know what that box contained, so she asked another young guy. He didn't know either, but an older employee overheard and just answered it was a voluntary donation.
Since the young girl and boy were both obviously not "Pure Wool French-Canadians", I dared to ask the girl as delicately as I could: "Do you know what these poppies are for?" No, she answered, so I told her about November 11th, and remembering our fallen heros who died so we could be free, etc. She thanked me and said she had learned something today.
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I assume all new employees at Tim Horton receive some kind of training about hand hygiene: why it's important for all employees to have very clean hands, how to wash your hands, when to wash them, etc. Maybe there is even a little hand-washing video that all new employees have to watch.
Why does Tim Horton invest the time and money to do this? After all, the worse that could happen is that several customers could catch some foodborne illness and get sick, and maybe even die! That's nothing, compared to the horrible disasters that will befall Canada if a critical mass of citizens forget why we wear a poppy around November 11th!
I wish I were good at explaining complicated subjects, because I think there is an important parallel to be made here. To understand why people can die because other people don't wash their hands, we need to study Biology, germs, how germs can live on your hands, then get transmitted to food, then the food is eaten, then a person gets sick, etc. Now to understand the connection between poppies and a dying democracy, we need to study a bit of Sociology.
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Societies are not like castles made of stones. Societies are more like castles made of clouds. As I repeat quite regularly on this web site, a society is a "moral being", not a material being; it exists insofar as the reasons and the wills of citizens are aligned. If a critical mass of citizens forget the Common Good that unites us, or choses to love something else, our Country will dissolve, like a cloud blown away by the wind.
Freedom in general, and freedom of speech in particular, are not free. Normally, they are acquired and conserved with the blood of fallen heroes (hence the appropriate red color of the poppies). Honoring those heroes reminds us of the ultimate price we should all be willing to pay to keep these precious goods.
Having recurring public celebrations like Armistice or Remembrance Day, on the Eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, allows us to grab a kind of "sociological trowel" with which we can re-shape the "clouds of our reasons and wills", to give them back their original form. Whether new immigrants or old citizens born here, our social "cloud castle" tends to dissipate over time, and if we don't re-educate ourselves regularly, eventually our Country will slip down into a tyranny.
(This is especially important in Canada these days, where some corrupt politicians are trying to weaken our "social immune system" by changing the meaning of Armistice Day, so they can better infect our Country with their Leftist propaganda.)
How often should an employee wash his hands? As often as necessary! How often should we teach our young citizens the importance of freedom of speech, the importance of democracy, the importance of being ready to sacrifice yourself to protect your fellow citizens? As often as necessary!
Teaching young people these eternal truths doesn't take much time. If you sit down with them, you'll finish your explanation long before your cup of coffee!
Semi-hilarious addendum: I tried to send this article to Tim Hortons, but as of 2019-Nov-09, their Contact page is so confusing I cannot find an appropriate e-mail address...
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