How well do we honour the fallen?

Today, I hope you know, is Remembrance Sunday. A day above all all others to give a thought to those millions of men who died in war.

Almost all the men, whatever their nation, believed they were fighting for a better way of life for their countrymen, their wives or sweethearts, and their children. Those who prevailed were generally those who fought for a way of life that allowed for liberty, freedoms and an openly democratic society where conflict could be resolved through discussion and the free exchange of ideas.

I have family who have fought. Some died. Others, not dying, bore the internal and external scars for life. Probably you have family like that, too; most of us do.

For two minutes every year, we hold a silence. Just two minutes a year to remind us of the sacrifice these men made. We rightly honour these men for all they have done for us, to keep us from one dictatorial power or another.

But how well do we honour these men in the rest of the year? Do we insist on the values that they gave up so much for, that allow us to live free of tyranny?

Do we insist on the right of freedom of speech so that the interchange of ideas is possible? Or do we keep quiet about the erosion of that freedom, whether by government decree wanting to protect people who can't take insults, or whether the freedom is more insidiously eroded by social corruptors who insist there are things we don't believe in but which we must pretend that we do?

Do we, in our turn, continue to ensure that our democracy is free and open, without dictates over who may be elected? Do we continue to seek diversity of opinion in our universities, council chambers and parliament, or do we allow those who care only about the outward characteristics to decide who is acceptable and who is not?

Did our warrior ancestors who saved us from lives of unremitting misery breed only meek lambs who will not even speak out against the ongoing destruction of all that our society was, leading us to a crumbled anarchy where even our children won't be ours to care for and protect.

A war was declared against men in the 1960s and is being waged against men and children even worse than was imagined back then. More and more women are now being vocal in joining the fight on men's behalf. It is time we all honoured our fallen and stood up to be counted among those who will fight on the side of those who have sacrificed so much more than we are likely to have to.

We don't have to spend years in the trenches facing dismemberment or death, we only have to speak up, to spend a few hours a week to insist on a way of life that allowed for liberty, freedoms and an openly democratic society where conflict could be resolved through discussion and the free exchange of ideas.