1. Domoviye

    Domoviye New Member

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    I Remember

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Domoviye, Nov 11, 2007.

    In Flanders Fields
    By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
    Canadian Army

    IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
    Between the crosses row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the Dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie
    In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders fields.
    ***

    Today is Remembrance Day, at least in Canada it's Remembrance Day. Other countries have different names, and some celebrate similar days on different days. But for me, no matter where I am the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, is Remembrance Day.
    I never did anything very special on Remembrance Day. I tried to go to the ceremonies, but since it's not an official holiday I couldn't always make the ceremony. Too often the company or school didn't consider it very important, and wouldn't let us go to the ceremony even at 11 o'clock. Or kept the ceremony so short if you were 2 minutes late you didn't get to participate.
    So I kept it to myself. I'd buy the poppies from the veterans. Or as the years progressed and fewer veterans survived, from the cardboard boxes they left out. Sometimes during university this was difficult even though they only asked for pennies. I insisted on giving as much as I could spare.
    On Remembrance Day, even if I was in class or at work, I tried to keep at least a minute of silence as soon as the clock hit 11. I'd still be listening, or working, but I wouldn't say a word. Its my own small way of honouring the people who fought and died for Canada.
    Remembrance Day isn't about honouring war. War is Hell. Some wars have been just. Some, too many, are not.
    Remembrance Day is about honouring the men, and now women, who have freely decided to show their support for their country by giving everything they had trying to protect their country, and their people. Many of them did not want to go to war. Many did not know what they were entering when they answered the call. But they went, and once they discovered what was happening, they stayed, and they fought, and too many died.
    They fought for their buddies. They fought to stay alive. They fought to keep their country free. They fought to free people who could not free themselves. In the last fifty years, many have fought, and died simply trying to keep people in different countries, around the world, and far from home, alive for one more day.
    It is for them that we honour the soldiers on Remembrance Day.
    They are not the politicians who spend every waking hour shouting about victory or defeat. They are not the murderers who purposefully kill civilians because they are too weak or cowardly to attack other soldiers. They are not people who spend more time looting and robbing people they are meant to protect, than actually protecting them.
    We honour the soldiers who fight for freedom, who try to keep the innocent alive, who fight against those that would kill everyone who does not agree with them.
    It is for them that we hold Remembrance Day. It is for them that we keep a moment of silence once a year. It is for them that we agree to stand on guard, protecting what they died for.

    May we never forget.

    The poem In Flanders Field, and responses to it.
    http://www.nbc-links.com/miscellaneous/FlandersField.html

    In Flanders Field as a song
    YouTube - In Flanders Fields


    If you wish to respond please keep it respectful. If you wish to make this political take it elsewhere.
     
  2. Domoviye

    Domoviye New Member

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    Military Poems, Military Poetry. Famous Military Related Poems

    A Tribute To Veterans
    Jerry Calow

    In Vietnam, Korea and World Wars Past
    Our Men Fought Bravely so Freedom Would Last
    Conditions Where Not Always Best They Could Be
    Fighting a Foe You Could Not Always See:

    From Mountain Highs to Valley Lows
    From Jungle Drops to Desert Patrols

    Our Sinewy Sons Were Sent Over Seas
    Far From Their Families And Far From Their Dreams
    They Never Wrote Letters Of Hardships Despair
    Only Of Love, Yearning That One Day Soon:

    They Would Come Home, They Would Resume
    And Carry On With The Rest of Their Lives

    The P.O.W.¹S Stood Steadfast
    Against the Indignities And Cruelties Of War
    They Could Not Have Lasted as Long as They Did
    If They Had Relinquished Their Hope That Some Day:

    They Would Come Home, They Would Resume
    And Carry On the Rest Of Their Lives

    Medics, Nurses, and Chaplains Alike
    Did What They Needed To Bring Back Life
    They Served Our Forces From Day Into Night
    Not Questioning If They Would Survive:

    They Mended Bones And Bodies Too,
    They Soothed the Spirits of Dying Souls

    And for Those M.I.A¹S, Who Were Left Behind
    We Echo This Message Across the Seas
    We Will search For as Long As It Takes
    You¹re Not Forgotten And Will Always Be:

    In Our Hearts, In Our Prayers,
    In Our Minds For All Time

    A Moment of Silence, a Moment of Summons
    Is Their Deliverance of Body And Soul
    To a Sacred Place That We All Know
    Deep In the Shrines of Our Soul:

    In Our Hearts, In Our Prayers
    In Our Minds For All Time
     
  3. Domoviye

    Domoviye New Member

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    War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stewart Mill
     
  4. Domoviye

    Domoviye New Member

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    Another video of Flanders Field being read with some WW1 video. YouTube - Flanders Field

    It's sad when you realize at least a quarter of the war graves they have throughout Europe are marked with one of two sayings, "Known by God", "A Soldier of the Great War".
    Many soldiers were killed in ways that no one could possibly identify the body. So they were buried as honourably as possible, but their names will only be remembered as Missing In Action.
     
  5. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Good call Dom, I was going to make the same thread.

    In loving memory of those who fell defending our freedoms, in the Great War (1914-1918) and the Second World War (1939-1945), and in all other conflicts.
     
  6. SeaBreeze

    SeaBreeze Banned

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    If it wasn't for them, this world that we live in and take for granted would be a very different place. May God cherish their souls.
     
  7. Skyscraper83

    Skyscraper83 New Member

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    Another good video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYynHmE8b0. It is a power point presentation with the song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda." It is very focus around Australia’s involvement in Gallipoli, but I think all will find it quite appropriate. I certainly found this touching.
     
  8. Night Haunter

    Night Haunter Banned

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    A moment of Silence and Respect.

    Those that fell lived in harsh conditions in muddy trenches under rain fall under brutal illness watching friends die and eventually have to battle their inner daemons on the call to go over.

    For courage above all else for duty for honour for the flag.
    I give my silence to those brave men.



    Lest We Forget
     
  9. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Today is a day to set aside the squabbles over just or unjust wars, and instead focus on the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

    Let us all remember with honor the dedicated soldiers who have given their lives so that others might breathe freedom; men and women who, eyes open, did what they were called upon to do despite the cost.
     
  10. Charisma

    Charisma Transposon Contributor

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    I share my views with all of you. It is true, these men and women hold quite a courage and high moral character to put aside their lives for the state. We celebrate Defence Day on 6th September, in the same spirit as Remembrance Day. However, schools and offices are off and we have quite a chance to show respect and honor to our saviors. Really, such patriotic people are saviors of our culture and heritage and most importantly our security.
     
  11. Torana

    Torana Contributor Contributor

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    No words can explain the gratitude that the rest of humanity has for these brave and noble heroes.

    May their souls forever lay in peace and the memory of their bravery forever live within us all.

    Lest we forget.
     
  12. Kit

    Kit Contributor Contributor

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    A very delayed post as I didn't have long at all on the internet yesterday, but nevertheless I too honour those that have sacrificed their lives so that we may continue to live our own in freedom.

    I was quite annoyed yesterday at work because the manager held our briefing and talked the whole way through the minute's silence, despite the fact that he'd been made aware of our wishes to have a minute's silence. We had one nonetheless, against the manager's wishes but his ignorance was shameful.
     
  13. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Was it ignorance or was he openly expressing his contempt? If, as you say, he was reminded beforehand, I would have to suspect the latter.
     
  14. Domoviye

    Domoviye New Member

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    People like that really should be shown a history book, and a world news paper. They have no idea how lucky they are.
     
  15. lessa

    lessa New Member

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    Sorry to say this Dom but it wouldn't make any difference to them.
    They are the ones who watch the protests against war and watch the war stories and say
    "doesn't concern me, not in my country"
    But they will be the ones who scream at the gov. if it ever does come to their country and they see it first hand. Or if someone they love takes up the torch. they would either play the always knew he had it in him to do this. OR stupid fool he didn't have to go why would he leave his job and family to go fight someone else's war.
     
  16. Kit

    Kit Contributor Contributor

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    Nah, it wasn't ignorance. I can't think of the right word but that's what we'd say around here, even though it's not the correct meaning of the word.

    He knew he was doing it.
     
  17. Raven

    Raven Banned

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    The sad truth is the trouble with many people they really don't understand the concept of war or what its aftermath brings and that lack of thought clouds their thoughts for those that have fallen in the name of freedom.

    Unless you've seen it with your own eyes you will never understand the true meaning of Rememberance day. And in truth nor would you want to.
     
  18. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    And because of the brave men and women who selflessly give their lives miles from home, we don't have to.
     
  19. PrincessGarnet

    PrincessGarnet New Member

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    I have to say poetry about the glories of war, and the glorious sacrifice that people make don't sit easy with me.

    Mental Cases

    Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?
    Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,
    Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,
    Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?
    Stroke on stroke of pain,-but what slow panic,
    Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?
    Ever from their hair and through their hands' palms
    Misery swelters. Surely we have perished
    Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?

    -These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.
    Memory fingers in their hair of murders,
    Multitudinous murders they once witnessed.
    Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,
    Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.
    Always they must see these things and hear them,
    Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles,
    Carnage incomparable, and human squander
    Rucked too thick for these men's extrication.

    Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented
    Back into their brains, because on their sense
    Sunlight seems a blood-smear; night comes blood-black;
    Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh.
    -Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,
    Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.
    -Thus their hands are plucking at each other;
    Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;
    Snatching after us who smote them, brother,
    Pawing us who dealt them war and madness.
     
  20. Domoviye

    Domoviye New Member

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    Well thats why you have a really thick history book. It makes step two really easy and effective.
    Step two. Beat them over the head with said history book and once you have beaten them senseless, fill the void in their head with news stories from around the world.
    It is very effective.

    Edit: Princess, that is a good and interesting poem. Thanks for posting it.
     
  21. wordwizard

    wordwizard New Member

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    A beautiful thread Dom.
    It really puts all lifes "drama, and hardships" we have, in perspective.
    A touching reminder.
    Thank-you for putting your time and energy to help everyone become more aware.
     

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