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The Off-limits Truth About War, Immigration, and Consequences
It is easy to draw direct lines on how to deal with immigration. The solutions appear simple and without consequence. Deport, or restrict immigration. Direct lines of thinking are deceiving because they ignore consequences, unintended and intended, adding to the large issues we face but refuse to acknowledge.
It is Remembrance Day in Canada. Though born in Canada, my father was signed up into the RAF by his British military father at 18 to train as a pilot flying bombers over occupied Europe. He survived the many tours to Europe including one where a bomb punched a hole in his Lancaster and by working together the crew navigated back to base in the dark, lights out. He was awarded the DFC and Bar.
In 1991, 46 years later, he was reading No Moon Tonight by Don Charlwood and woke up with nightmares, his entire body saturated in sweat followed by more sleepless nights. A decorated pilot, the trauma of dropping bombs on people, and the loss of one crew member and many friends, were deeply embedded in his cellular memory. He had survived but the emotional scars seeped into his relationship with himself and by extension to others.