Respect the dead, but tick off the neighbours.

"Get up and show your respect!" was how I was awakened on Thursday. My son, who loves memorials, Remembrance Day, rescue missions and patriotism, goes on to remind me of the tragic events of nine-eleven.

While the event was indisputably tragic, I resisted the urge to remind him that nearly twice that many unborn babies are killed in America every single day, 4 times that many deaths have occurred in Afghanistan since nine-eleven, and, and, and....

As I left for work Jed was busily connecting to Limewire downloading the Star Spangled Banner.

Seven hours later I returned from work to find no one home. There was an American flag draped across my table like a tablecloth. The Canadian flag was pinned to the wall. The flag of Israel was hanging in the dining room window. All the dining room chairs were wearing assorted t-shirts: Fort George Highway Rescue, LAPD, Edmonton Firefighters, etc. Jed's Fireman's jacket was on a chair back, propped up on a shelf with some boards so it could be seen in the window.

All the windows were open. Jed's laptop was set up with speakers sitting on the window sill facing outside to the neighbourhood.

I shutter to think how many different versions of various national anthems my neighbours were subjected to over the course of the day.