Lest We Forget

[izstigspunks]

Today is Remembrance / Veterans / Armistice Day, and I'd like to pay respect to those who served and are still serving our countries.

A quote from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who first proclaimed this special day back in 1919:

To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.

Lastly, a poem that will echo in schools today at 11AM:

In Flander's Fields

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 Flander's 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, tho poppies grow
In Flander's fields.

Liet. -Col. John McCrae

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

 

[cali~jenn]

Thank you for posting this. I 2nd that to all the vets who have risked their lives and their families who supported them and still do today!

 

[BruceP]

Thank you for sharing. And Thank You to those who have given so much.

 

[Lucy-licious]

The First Two Minute Silence in London (11th November 1919) as reported in the Manchester Guardian, 12th November 1919.

'The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect.

The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition.
Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.'

Poppy petals. Buckley-Clarke/ Wedgebury
a song we used to sing in school.

Old soldiers never die
They simply fade they say
Is that the price I ask myself
That soldiers have to pay?

Bugle notes and drum beats
Flash of sun on brass
He hears the call as comrades all
Tramp the long march past

Warrior fading quickly
Like a weak pale winter sun
Bowed and creeping slowly
Life's race is all but run.

The red poppy leaves are wrinkled
One by one they fall
Soldier, can you answer still?
When the bugle notes do call.

Play the music gently
No harsh notes sound, I ask
For the poppy leaves are falling
Glory days now past

Last petal now has fallen
Old soldiers gone away
Last post music calling
Old soldiers out to play.

Bugle notes and drum beats
Flash of sun on brass
He hears their call, his footsteps fall,
Away on their long march past

I wear my Poppy with pride

 

[kayrahbear]

I just got out of the Navy not too long ago. This made me cry like a big ol' baby. Thank you for posting this!

 

[2BullyMama]

WOW... thank you to all those that have served in the armed forces