Lenard Whiting, who worked as the Director of the UTSC Choir and lectured in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media (ACM) at UTSC, here discusses his experience organizing Remembrance Day events on campus with Lynn Tucker, a fellow ACM faculty member.
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0:05
One of the important things that has happened since Professor [Lynn] Tucker has been here is the importance of the Remembrance Day ceremony on campus. Each year it’s the band and the choir singing together, singing and playing together. Forgive me. [Chuckles]
0:20
I want to say that that is probably one of the greatest things that I’ve seen really become entrenched into the fabric of UTSC experience.
0:34
For me, this goes back to my youth. And I was always very passionate about the things that we have gained through the sacrifices of those that went ahead of us. And recognizing that the world would be a completely different place had things gone
0:55
in different directions, if World War I, World War II… But actually, you know, war in general.
1:00
As a young person, I just you know, would look at an individual and think, “oh, they were going to become a doctor, they were going to become a tradesman.” Everybody has all this great potential, and then war just deprives the world of such greatness.
1:16
And when I came to UTSC, I was pleased that it was an important part of life here.
1:23
For me, this is just a general observation, I want to say, from the mid-late 1990s through to the middle of 2004, 2005, we live in a secular society, and there was a strong sentiment moving away from the importance of events like Remembrance Day.
1:44
A disregard for protocol, and I was finding the experience, it was losing its focus.
